Performance of rice cultivars with weed management practices in dry direct-seeded rice

Abstract

Weeds are the most important biotic constraint in direct-seeded rice (DSR) production. A field experiment was carried out in split plot design replicated thrice during September 2019 to evaluate the performance of different cultivars integrated with weed management practices under DSR at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture & Research Institute, Karaikal, Puducherry UT, India. The treatment combination consisted of three cultivars in main plot (ADT 46, CO 52 and White Ponni) and five levels of weed management practices in the sub-plots (application of pendimethalin 1.0 kg/ha as pre-emergence herbicide at 3 DAS, bispyribac-sodium 0.02 kg/ha as post-emergence herbicide at 20 DAS, sequential application of pendimethalin 1.0 kg/ha followed by bispyribac-sodium 0.02 kg/ha, hand weeding twice at 20 and 40 days after sowing (DAS) and unweeded control. Results revealed that rice cultivar ADT 46 integrated with sequential application of pendimethalin fb bispyribac-sodium (1.0 kg/ha fb 0.02 kg/ha) reduced the weed density and weed dry weight, and increased the growth, yield attributes and rice grain yield. Uncontrolled weeds caused 51.9 % yield loss in dry-DSR under coastal deltaic ecosystem.