Weeds are one of the main factors affecting a farm's productivity, profitability and sustainability. Over the last few decades, farmers across Europe have relied heavily on herbicides as the main way to manage weeds, given how effectively they control and suppress them. Heavy herbicide use, however, harms both agricultural ecosystems and human health. With this in mind, the EU's Farm to Fork Strategy set the target of reducing the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030, which is why encouraging farmers to adopt sustainable weed management methods, in particular for synthetic herbicides, has become such a priority.
In this context, Agroecological Weed Management (AWM) is a sustainable farming approach that (i) helps prevent weeds from taking over fields in the first place, cutting down the need for chemical herbicides, and (ii) reduces weed pressure. Instead of treating all weeds as "enemies" to be eliminated, this approach recognizes that some weeds can be beneficial for the agroecosystem, for example by providing habitat for wildlife and insects or by enriching the soil. By working with nature rather than against it, AWM aims to protect biodiversity while keeping the food supply secure, as described in the GOOD project's vision for agroecological weed management.
The "Agroecology for Weeds" (GOOD) project aims to show how adopting AWM can strongly reduce the use of synthetic herbicides, improve sustainability and stabilize farm productivity and resilience, and also to give farmers the tools to put weed management strategies into practice in their fields. To this end, the project has developed a digital tool, the AWM Toolbox.
What is the AWM Toolbox?
The AWM Toolbox is a free, online Decision Support System (DSS), available through the GOOD platform. After registering, users create a personalized digital "parcel" and mark its location on a map. The Toolbox then uses this information to automatically pull in local soil and climate data for that plot, such as pH, organic carbon, soil texture, temperature and rainfall. Finally, users answer a short set of guided questions about weeds, farming practices and costs, and receive a tailored report with recommended agroecological weed management strategies for that specific field.
Behind the simple interface, the Toolbox relies on a large body of organized knowledge, including:
- Dozens of AWM practice combinations tested on the crops studied in the GOOD project's Living Labs, agronomic trials that run for three years in nine European countries
- Information on crops, weeds, cover crops, sowing windows and how well different combinations perform
- Environmental data layers, such as rainfall, temperature and soil characteristics, drawn from public sources
This knowledge has been checked and refined by weed management experts and by the farmers and advisors involved in the project's Living Labs, so the recommendations are grounded in both science and field experience.
Which problem does the AWM Toolbox solve?
How to approach weed management depends on many factors: the crop, soil, climate, the weed species present and the level of infestation, past management, available equipment, and each farmer's own priorities, such as cost, environmental impact or yield.
Most existing digital tools for weed management fall short because they:
- Focus mainly on selecting synthetic herbicides
- Require detailed field data that are hard to collect
- Rarely combine several practices into one coherent, longer-term weed management plan
That is why the AWM Toolbox was designed to prioritize agroecological and low-impact options, encouraging a more diversified decision-making process in which herbicides are a last resort, used only when no other solution is feasible or effective.
How a farmer uses the AWM Toolbox
Using the Toolbox follows a clear, guided path:
- Register and add a parcel: name the field, choose the main crop, mark whether it is in a protected area, and locate it on the map so that soil and climate data fill in automatically.
- Answer questions on weeds and weed management: which weed species are present, when they are most present in the field, how much yield is lost to them, current herbicide use, and the capacity to apply AWM practices.
- Answer questions on agricultural practices: the farmer's targets (for example, weed suppression or soil erosion prevention), which cover crop species are realistically available, whether direct-seeding equipment is on hand, soil tillage, irrigation, fertilizer use, and the perceived level of biodiversity.
- Enter basic cost figures: seed prices for the main crop and the cover crop, tillage costs, and typical weed management spending.
- Save the scenario and view the report: the tool proposes combinations of AWM practices built around the chosen cover crop or crops, including suitable sowing times, complementary practices such as reduced tillage or crop rotation, and links to detailed factsheets in the GOOD repository explaining how to apply each practice.
What farmers can expect from the AWM Toolbox
The AWM Toolbox is meant to work as a practical companion for everyday decisions, not just as a static information page. Farmers can expect:
- Personalized, plot-specific recommendations rather than generic advice
- Coverage for both annual and perennial crops, with guidance on the best sowing windows
- Indicative impact estimates, including the expected reduction in herbicide use and estimated weed management and production costs, alongside clear disclaimers on their limits
- Free access through simple registration on the GOOD platform, with more languages to be added in early 2027 to make the tool accessible to more farmers
The goal of the AWM Toolbox is to make scientific knowledge on herbicide alternatives and agroecological solutions easy to access and apply, helping farmers reduce their dependence on herbicides while giving them the tools to manage weeds in a realistic and sustainable way on their own fields, according to their own priorities.
How to start using the AWM Toolbox
- The AWM Toolbox is free to use after registering at dss.goodhorizon.eu.
- The GOOD project's Living Labs, factsheets and results are on the project website.
Sources
- European Commission. (2020). 'Farm to fork' strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system. EUR-Lex summary of COM(2020) 381.
- Tataridas, A., Anastasi, M., Vieites-Álvarez, Y., López-González, D., Campillo-Cora, C., Giusti, A., et al. (2025). EU-funded research to advance agroecological weed management in Europe, Part I: vision. Open Research Europe, 5, 211.