Management of weeds with rice straw mulch in organic turmeric (Curcuma longa L.)

摘要

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) has a great potential under organic cultivation as it is highly responsive to organic manures and has no serious problem of insect-pests and diseases. Weed management is a major problem in cultivation of organic crops in general and turmeric in particular as its emergence and initial growth is very slow. An experiment was conducted during 2011-12 and 2012-13 at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to evaluate different non-chemical weed management practices for controlof weeds in organic turmeric. The results revealed that application of rice straw mulch at 10 t/ha provided effective control of weeds with a weed control efficiency of 79.7% and it gave significantly highest turmeric rhizome yield (30.3 t/ha) than allthe other treatments. Rice straw mulch at 8 t/ha was the 2nd best treatment and was also significantly better than all the other treatments. The rhizome yield reduction under un weeded conditions was 80.5% as compared to rice straw application of 10 t/ha. A yield increase of 51.5% with rice straw mulch of 10 t/ha was observed over the weed free indicating its benefits other than the weed management. Intercropping of cowpea and harvesting it for fodder at 30, 45 and 60 days after sowing (DAS) followed byone hand weeding at 90 DAS was not successful in managing the weeds and giving remunerative turmeric yields due to suppression of turmeric plants. The gross and net returns as well as benefit cost ratio were significantly highest with rice straw mulch at 10 t/ha.