Conviso Smart
The system with ALS-tolerant sugar beets in Conviso Smart has quickly gained widespread use in Sweden and accounted for just under 70% of the Swedish sugar beet area in 2025.
In Denmark, however, cultivation is very limited due to a very low approved dose of the herbicide Conviso One.
Smart weed control
Advantages of Conviso Smart
Conviso One, which forms the basis of weed control in Conviso Smart, is highly effective with both foliar and soil activity.
The main strategy has been two treatments, which in many cases have provided very good control of both grass weeds and broadleaf weeds.
Disadvantages of Conviso Smart
Conviso One consists of two active substances, both of which have the same mode of action and belong to the resistance-prone group of ALS inhibitors. Even though the main recommendation includes adding, for example, fenmedifam (Betanal), there is still a clear difference in the number of modes of action compared to a more traditional strategy.
It has also become apparent that there are already a considerable number of fields where the effect of Conviso One is insufficient, and where suspected resistance is the primary cause. The resistance problems concern grass weeds, especially blackgrass, but increasingly also common broadleaf weeds such as fat hen, sowthistle, chickweed, knotweed, chamomile, and poppy.
The future of Conviso Smart
Conviso Smart is an efficient and time-saving system, but in its current form it is vulnerable to resistance development. As Conviso Smart is currently marketed, there is a clear risk that the sustainability of the concept is limited. There is a need to adapt the concept to actual field conditions and to apply a more robust herbicide strategy combined with mechanical control in order to fully utilize the system over a longer period.
Field trial activities
In our weed trials, we examine various strategies to make Conviso Smart more robust and to better manage species that are at risk of developing resistance. There will be no universal solution; as before, adaptations must be made at field level according to weed flora and soil conditions, in line with classic IPM.
