Present status and intelligent development prospects of mechanical weeding technology and equipment for rice

Weed is one of the main causes for decline of rice yield and quality. The application of chemical herbicide has brought many negative problems, such as crop toxicity, weed resistance and environmental pollution, etc. Mechanical weeding, as an environmentally-friendly weeding method, can effectively replace chemical weeding and alleviate the harm caused by herbicide. Aiming at the technical difficulties of mechanical weeding among rice plants, the research status of mechanical weeding devices among plants were systematically introduced from the perspective of root difference characteristics of weed seedlings. The types and characteristics of new mechanical weeding technology were introduced, and the unique features and advantages of several new mechanical weeding equipments for rice were summarized. It is pointed out that intelligent weeding technology with high precision and high weed localization function will be the inevitable development trend of mechanical weeding technology for rice in future.