Effect of weed management techniques on weeds, yield and economics on rice based cropping systems

Abstract

ABSTRACT :A field experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Research Farm of Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad (U.P.) during two consecutive crop seasons of 2008-09 and 2009-10. The experiment was laid out in Split Plot Design with three replications. The twelve treatment combinations comprised of six cropping systems viz., rice-wheat, rice-chickpea, rice-fieldpea, rice-mustard, rice-linseed, rice-berseem, were kept in main plots and two weed control treatments viz., two hand weeding (20 and 40 DAS) and weedy check in rice crop and one hand weeding at 30 DAS and weedy in Rabi crops were kept in sup- plots. The hand weeding was done with the help of Khurpi. In rice crop lower weed density was recorded in rice-chickpea cropping system followed by rice-wheat cropping system at all the stages of crop growth during both the years. Significantly lower weed dry weight was recorded in rice-mustard cropping system as compared to other cropping system at all the stages of crop growth during both the years. Application of 2 HW (20 and 45 DAS) gave highest grain yield of 44.42 q /ha-1 in rice- berseem cropping system during first year and 43.40q/ ha-1 in rice-chickpea during second year. The lowest grain yield of 12.32 and 14.30 q / ha-1 was obtained in weedy plot of rice-fieldpea cropping system during respective years. In Rabi crops significantly lower weed density and dry weight was recorded in one hand weeding compared to weedy check plot at all the stages of crop growth during both the years.