Evaluation of Organic Weed Management Practices on Growth, Yield and Weed Control Efficiency in Soybean-chickpea Sequence under Irrigated Condition

Abstract

Background: Weeds are widely reported as a key constraint in organic agriculture. Soybean-chickpea is important cropping sequence adopted in Maharashtra State under irrigated condition. Weed management is a serious problem in both the crop and it mostly controlled through chemical weed control. Today, widespread use of herbicides has resulted in purporated environmental and health problem as well as residual problems to succeeding crops. Now a days residue free food requirement is high. In organic farming cultural and mechanical methods are necessary to break the weed cycle. So, keeping this point in view present investigation was carried out to evaluate organic weed management practices on growth, yield and weed control in soybean-chickpea sequence under irrigated condition. Methods: A field experiment was conducted during Kharif and rabi seasons of 2017-18 and 2018-19. The present investigation consisted of ten weed management practices viz. two hand weeding at 20-25 and 45-50 DAS, one hoeing 20-25 DAS + one hand weeding at 45-50 DAS, soybean + sunhemp incorporation after 35-40 DAS in kharif season and chickpea + safflower (2:1) in rabi season, stale seed bed + reduced spacing + 2 tonne of wheat straw + one hand weeding at 25 DAS, soil mulch at the time of sowing + one hand pulling at 25 DAS, incorporation of neem cake 1.5 tonne/ ha 15 days before sowing + one hand weeding at 25 DAS, soil solarization with 25 μ polythene mulch during summer + one hand weeding at 25 DAS, mulching with straw, weed free and weedy check. Result: The higher values of growth attributes was recorded by weed free treatment which was on par with two hand weeding at 20-25 and 45-50 DAS and soil solarization with 25 μ polythene mulch during summer + one hand weeding at 25 DAS and significantly superior over rest of the treatments during both the year study. Application of stale seed bed with reduced spacing and 2 tonne of wheat straw along with one hand weeding 25 DAS recorded higher soybean equivalent yield followed by soybean + sunhemp incorporation (35-45DAS) in kharif and chickpea + safflower (2:1) in rabi season during both the year. The lower weed density, dry weight and highest weed control efficiency at 40 days after sowing for both monocot and dicot weeds was recorded by weed free treatment followed by soil solarization with 25 μ polythene mulch during summer + one hand weeding at 25 DAS in soybean and chickpea during both the year.

Effect of weed management practices on growth and yield of Blackgram (Phaseolus mungo L.)

“…This increment in population of weeds under weedy check might be ascribed to uninterrupted growth of weeds throughout the crop season. Heavy infestation of weeds under weedy check has been also reported by Mishra et al (2017) [6] , Poornima et al (2018) [9] , Chavan et al (2019) [3] , and Sahu et al (2019) [11] in mungbean crop.…”

Performance of cultural and mechanical practices on weed-control efficiency, productivity and economics of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) under organic production

“…Significant improvement in crop productivity with marginal increase in cost of cultivation under intercropping with chickpea (1 : 1 additive series) treatment improved the net return and benefit: cost (B : C) ratio of the treatment. Improvement in net profit and B : C ratio owing to intercropping was also reported by Chavan et al (2020).…”

“…Similarly, under SSB weed seeds bank and species diversity in the cultivation layer was reduced by repeated tillage that stimulated emergence (Senthilkumar et al, 2019;Shivran et al, 2020). Monocot, dicot and total weeds were efficiently controlled using SSB + reduced spacing + wheat straw mulch @ 2 t/ha + HW at 25 DAS in soybean and gram under organic production (Chavan et al, 2020).…”

Organic Weed Management: A Step Forward Towards Sustainability

“…It raises the warmth of the soil and kills seeds. Weed density can be minimized by onehanded weeding after planting the crop and soil solarization with a 25˜ polythene mulch during the summer (Chavan et al, 2021).…”