Effect of Weed Management Practices on Productivity and Economics of Rice-Rice Crop sequence under Organic Production System

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple food crop for more than half of the world's population. It is grown in more than 100 countries across the globe. In India, it is cultivated over 43.79 mha area with a production of 112.91 mt of milled rice and an average productivity of 2578 kg ha-1 (DES, 2018). In Andhra Pradesh, rice is grown in an area of 2.1 m ha with an annual production of 12.0 mt and a productivity of 5.70 t ha-1 (Anonymous, 2017). Godavari delta with alluvial soils is the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh, is one of the major contributors of rice production in India. Rice-rice is the predominant cropping system in this deltaic region under canal irrigated conditions. Furthermore, continuous cultivation of rice for longer periods and often with poor agronomic management especially improper or inadequate weed management practices, results in substantial yield loss (Tripathi, 1992; Dwivedi et al., 2001) and decline in factor productivity (Yadav, 1998). On the other hand, organic farming