**Without glyphosate, crop yields will be a fraction of what they are now.**
Glyphosate doesn’t increase yields. It is simply a post-emergant weed killer that doesn’t kill the genetically glyphosate resistant crop.
Soil incorporated pre-emergence weed killers do an effective job when applied to tilled soil.
Trouble is, that takes a lot more fuel and time to moldboard plow, which is rare these days, but helped bury weed seeds too deep to sprout.
Fungicides have been all the rage for about 20 years, even being applied twice in a crop season in some cases. It supposedly results in healthier plants which in turn can give an approximate 10% yield increase.
Glyphosate, and similar herbicides, have dramtically increased yields on my farm. By not tilling and mechanically cultivating, not only has the top soil improved substantially, but we’ve been able to increase the seed population.
Weeds in crop fields if not treated will significantly impact the ability of the crops to get nutrients - and so yes, without glyphosate crop yields will drop significantly.
“Soil incorporated pre-emergence weed killers do an effective job when applied to tilled soil.”
Which often contain glyphosate, when they work at all - they need years and years of application to be effective, since pre-emergence are cumulative.