Effect of Land Configuration and Weed Management on Performance of Urdbean [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper

Abstract

Background: Blackgram is an important crop among kharif pulses and is usually grown on marginal and sub-marginal lands without proper weed management under rainfed situation. Broad bed furrows had greater influence on plant growth over farmers practice. Weed management through mechanical or manual is normally tedious, labour consuming and costlier. Keeping this in view, the present study was envisaged to investigate integrated effect of land configuration and weed management regimes on productivity of urdbean. Methods: A field experiment was carried out during kharif seasons of 2016 and 2017 at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lam, Guntur on effect of land configuration and weed management on performance of urdbean (Vigna mungo L.Hepper). The treatments included two land configurations i.e., flat bed and broad bed furrow method allotted as horizontal plots and four weed management practices i.e., weedy check, pendimethalin 30 EC @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 PE, imazethapyr 10% SL @ 55 g ha-1 at 15-20 DAS and pendimethalin 30 EC @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 PE fb imazethapyr 10% SL @ 55g ha-1 at 15-20 DAS allotted as vertical plots replicated four times in a strip plot design. The comparison of treatment means was made by critical difference (CD) at P less than 0.05 by using standard statistical procedures. Result: Based on the results, it can be concluded broad bed method of land configuration proved its superiority over flat bed method by producing 12.8 per cent higher grain yield besides empowering growth and yield attributes. Among the weed management practices, the highest grain yield (1280 kg ha-1) recorded with pendimethalin 30 EC @ 1.0 kg a.i ha-1 PE fb imazethapyr 10% SL @ 55g ha-1 at 15-20 DAS along with maximum monetary returns and B:C can be recommended for urdbean.