Robin Gómez is an associate professor in Weed Science at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and president of the Costa Rican Weed Science Society (ACEM). He has an MSc. in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources from UCR and a PhD. in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University. His research focuses on the biology, ecology, and management of weeds in tropical agroecosystems.
Cover crops are plants established in rotation or intercropped with the cash crop to provide multiple ecosystem services to croplands. Living mulches are plants that are either introduced or selected from the native vegetation of croplands to coexist with the main crop to enhance beneficial ecological interactions. I will share with you our experience of ten years exploring the interactions among cover crops/living mulches, weeds, and arthropods in various tropical agroecosystems. I will present some of the findings of our studies on cover crops for weed control in coffee, papaya, and sugarcane; the co-occurrence of certain weed species and beneficial insects in sugarcane margins; and the study of native vegetation and its associated entomofauna in coffee plantations. I expect to give you an idea of the complexity of tropical agroecosystem functioning and the importance of adopting sustainable agricultural practices for the benefit of farm productivity and environmental stewardship.