Effect of weed management practices on productivity and profitability of jute fibre

A field experiment was conducted at Kendrapara, Odisha to find out suitable and cost effective weed management practices for jute. Different doses of pre-emergence butachlor (both liquid and granule formulation) and post-emergence (quizalofop-ethyl) herbicides followed by (fb) one hand weeding (HW) were tested in jute crop and the treatment effects were compared with unweeded and two hand weeding treatments. Application of quizalofop-ethyl 60 g/ha at 20 days after crop emergence (DAE) followed by one HW at 15–20 days after herbicide application recorded higher weed control efficiency (78.3%), plant height (351 cm), basal diameter (1.40 cm) and fiber yield (2.9 t/ha) of jute as well as higher B:C ratio (2.13) compared to other weed control treatments. Values of the said parameters recorded with the quizalofop- ethyl treatment were statistically at par with those recorded with two hand weeding. Butachlor 1.5 kg/ha fb one HW at 20 DAE was the next best treatment with respect to weed control efficiency (68.7%), plant height (341.0 cm), basal diameter (1.39 cm), fibre yield (2.64 t/ha), and B:C ratio (1.99). Thus application of pre-emergence herbicide butachlor 1.5 kg/ha or post-emergence herbicide quizalofop-ethyl 60 g/ha in combination with one manual weeding may be recommended to the jute growers as more effective and economic weed control practices compared to the existing manual weeding practice.