The three herbicides, which are currently being field trialled, were discussed at a recent International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) conference in Belgium and offer a new Mode of Action compared with glyphosate.

Professor Stephen Powles from the University of Western Australia is a herbicide resistance expert and was at the IUPAC conference.

Professor Powles said the new herbicides were an exciting development for weed control options.

"The best we can do in Australia and global farming is to have diversity in crops and rotations and the ways we control pests and weeds and that includes the use of herbicides," Professor Powles said.

He believes the new herbicides, which offer pre-emergent weed control in rice and cereals, may be commercially available within four years, following the usual chemical registration and testing protocols.

Professor Powles tweeted: "The drought of new Mode Of Action herbicides has partially broken. At IUPAC Mitsui described cyclopyrimorate (rice pre-em) and Bayer aclonifen (cereal pre-em). They inhibit HST (homogentisate solanesyltransferase) stopping plastoquinone synthesis. Thus new MOA. Let us use them wisely!"

Professor Powles also mentioned new chemistry from company FMC, with a selective herbicide, tetraflupyrolimet.

"Diversity Is a key and it's exciting to see the development of these new MOA chemicals," Professor Powles said.