Studies on Integrated Weed Management Practices in Rainfed Maize under Sub-montaneous Conditions

To study the impact assessment of different cultural and chemical weed management practices alone and in combination with each other in maize under rainfed conditions, a field experiment was conducted at farmer's fields as a part of All India Coordinated Operational Research Project for Dryland Agriculture for two years. It was observed that pre-emergence application of atrazine in combination with one hoeing at 35 DAS resulted in lowest weed density, total weeds dry weight and highest mean grain yield (31.34 q ha⁻¹) and was statistically at par with pre-emergence application of alachlor in combination with one hoeing at 35 DAS (29.86 q ha⁻¹) and post-emergence application of atrazine in combination with one hoeing at 35 DAS (28.86 q ha⁻¹). Application of atrazine (pre or post emergence) in combination with one hoeing at 35 DAS resulted in 7.48% higher mean grain yield over application of atrazine alone, while the same recorded 20.46% yield increase over two hoeings at 15 and 30 DAS, thus, clearly indicating the beneficial effect of chemical weed control as compared to hoeing in the initial stages of crop growth.