Abstract
Till now, herbicide seems to be a cost effective tool from an agronomic view point to control weeds. But long term efficacy and sustainability issues are the driving forces behind the reconsideration of herbicide dependent weed management strategy in rice. This demands reappearance of physical and cultural management options combined with judicious herbicide application in a more comprehensive and integrated way. Keeping those in mind, some agronomic tools along with different manual weeding and herbicides combinations were evaluated for their weed control efficacy in rice under aerobic soil conditions. Combination of competitive variety, higher seeding rate, and seed priming resulted in more competitive cropping system in favor of rice, which was reflected in lower weed pressure, higher weed control efficiency, and better yield. Most of the herbicides exhibited excellent weed control efficiency. Treatments comprising only herbicides required less cost involvement but produced higher net benefit. On the contrary, treatments comprising both herbicide and manual weeding required high cost involvement and thus produced lower net benefit. Therefore, adoption of competitive rice variety, higher seed rate, and seed priming along with spraying different early-postemergence herbicides in rotation at 10 days after seeding (DAS) followed by a manual weeding at 30 DAS may be recommended from sustainability view point.
Highlights
Weeds are endemic in crops [1] and a constant problem in crop production because of their dynamic nature [2]
The results further revealed that in every case when bentazon/MCPA was replaced by manual weeding, gross income was increased marginally but net benefit was reduced considerably because of much higher cost involvement in manual weeding (RM 1250/ha) compared to Bentazon/MCPA (RM 110/ha)
A more competitive cropping system in favor of rice as a consequence of combined use of competitive variety, higher seeding rate, and seed priming is evident from the study, which was reflected in lower weed pressure, higher weed control efficiency, and better yield
Summary
Weeds are endemic in crops [1] and a constant problem in crop production because of their dynamic nature [2]. Despite modern control practices aimed at weed elimination, weed continues to be a ubiquitous and recurrent threat for crop production due to its ability to shift in response to management practices and environmental conditions [3]. Because of the diversity and plasticity of weed communities, weed management should include diverse approaches and to be viewed as a continuous process [2]. Concern over the escalating problems of herbicide persistence and resistance in weeds and herbicide toxicity to crop has reinforced the need for alternative approaches [1]. Herbicides are often blamed for environmental pollution [4] and impoverishment of the natural flora and fauna in agro ecosystem [5]. Long term efficacy and sustainability issues are the driving forces behind the reconsideration of herbicide dependent weed management
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