AMARJEET NIBHORIA*, JITENDER KUMAR, BIKRAM SINGH, SATYAJEET, ASHOK KUMAR DEHINWAL AND MUKESH KUMAR
Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University,
Regional Research Station, Bawal (Rewari), Haryana-123501, India
*(e-mail : amarnibhoria@gmail.com)
(Received : 5 December 2021; Accepted : 28 December 2021)
SUMMARY
The study was conducted during Kharif 2019 and Kharif 2020 at CCS HAU Regional Research Station, Bawal, India to assess the relative performance of different methods (manual, chemical and mechanical) of weed management in pearl millet. The crop was infested with Carpet weed (Trianthema portulacustrum), Nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus), Crow root grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium) and Digera arvensis etc. Among all treatments, mechanical weed management integrated with supplementary manual weeding viz. mechanized interculture with tractor drawn cultivator at 15 and 25 DAS followed by one supplementary hand weeding at 30 DAS under crop geometry of 60 cm × 10 cm was found most productive and remunerative with grain yield of 23.17 q/ha, net returns (Rs.18746/ha) and B:C (1.52). Yield and net returns achieved under this treatment were 3 and 177 per cent higher than manual interculture with kasola under 45 cm x 12 cm crop geometry, respectively. Mechanized interculture with tractor drawn cultivator or power weeder at 15 and 25 DAS followed by
supplementary hand weeding at 30 DAS under crop geometry of 60cm × 10cm resulted into the
highest weed control efficiency (WCE) of 91 percent, manual intercuture with kasola provided WCE of 85 percent over period of two years (2019 and 2020). While, Chemical weed management with atrazine @ 0.5 kg/ha as pre as well as post emergence gave WCE of 72 and 71 percent, respectively, while, Unchecked weeds caused yield loss of 43 percent over the study period.
Key words:Mechanized weed management, crop geometry, pearl millet, weed control efficiency