Interventional weed management methods in direct seeded rice

摘要

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple food crop of India. A shift in crop establishment from traditional manual transplanting of seedlings to direct-seeding has occurred in many Asian countries, including in India. Direct seeded rice hasmany advantages over transplanted rice. It consumes less water and matures earlier than the transplanted crop. However, weeds are the most important biotic constraint in direct seeded rice production. A field experiment was carried out during 2016-2017at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Karaikal, Puducherry Union Territory, India to study the effect of interventional weed management strategies on the diverse weed flora, rice yield and benefitxost ratio in direct seeded rice under unpuddled conditions.Grassy weeds dominated the weed flora, with jungle rice (Echinochloa colona (L). Link) the major weed. A higher jungle rice population was noticed when weed management was done through manual weeding with a rotary weeder. Integration of herbicide and manual (hand) weed control resulted in a lower population of jungle rice, which resulted in better weed control, higher rice yield and a superior benefitxost ratio. Uncontrolled weeds lead to 71 % yield loss in direct seeded rice.