Biology and management of barnyardgrass, red sprangletop and weedy rice

Abstract

About 400 weed species of 73 families have been reported to occur in upland and lowland rice fields in Vietnam. Two important families are Poaceae and Cyperaceae having 42% of weed species with 21% each. The barnyardgrass, Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) Beauv., is the most important weed in both transplanted and direct-seeded rice in this country. The competi-tion of 25 barnyardgrass plants/m2 causes approximately 50% yield loss. Red sprangletop, Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees., is an emerging major weed in direct-seeded rice. Weedy rice (Oryza sativa L.) was detected in 1994 and is now a new dangerous pest in rice fields. The main reasons are: herbicides which can kill weedy rice completely are not available in the market, non-chemical methods are laborious and costly, and weedy rice can develop a new generation from contaminated seeds through rice sowing or emerging from soil seed bank. Research results on the Vietnamese situation of barnyardgrass, red sprangletop and weedy rice in terms of biology and management by chemical and non-chemical methods have been reviewed in this paper.