Weed management approaches for dry-seeded rice in India: A review

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important staple crop in India, where it is mainly grown by manual transplanting of seedlings into puddled soil. Recently, however, there is a trend toward dry-seeded rice (DSR) because of labour and water scarcity. In DSR, weeds are the main biological constraint. Herbicides are used to manage weeds in DSR systems, but the use of herbicides alone does not provide effective and sustainable weed control. Therefore, there is a need to integrate herbicide use with cultural weed management approaches, such as the use of a stale seedbed technique, different tillage systems, weed-competitive cultivars, cultivars capable of emerging under anaerobic conditions, crop residue for mulches, high seeding rates, narrow rows, and optimum time and depth of flooding.