Effect of seed rate and weed control methods on productivity and profitability of wetland rice under medium land conditions

A field experiment was conducted at Ranchi, Jharkhand during rainy seasons of 2010 and 2011 to find out the effect of seed rate and weed control methods on wet seeded rice under medium land condition. Increasing seed rate from 60 to 120 kg/ha did not influence weed density and weed dry matter at 20 and 40 DAS. Application of pyrazosulfuron 0.02 kg/ha early post-emergence reduced density of all categories of weeds. The mean reduction was 61.9 and 35.3% and 66.7 and 41.9% at 20 and 40 DAS compared to butachlor and 2 hand weeding respectively. Pyrazosulfuron being similar to Almix (chlorimuron + metsulfuron) 20 g/ha recorded 70.3 and 87.0% reduced weed dry matter compared to weedy check. Application of 80 kg seed/ha being similar to 100, and 120 kg seed/ha recorded 63.0% higher grain (2.70 t/ha) and 70.9% higher straw (3.81 t/ha) yield compared to 60 kg seed/ha.