Land configurations and mulches influence weed suppression, productivity and economics in ginger

Ginger is known to be sensitive to weed infestation, which severely influences crop productivity and ultimately to the economic returns. Therefore, in-situ resource conservation like land configurations namely broad bed and furrow (BBF), ridge and furrow (R&F) and flatbed (FB) and mulches with Imperata cylendrica (IC), pine needle (PN), double mulching of paddy straw followed by weed biomass (PS) and no mulch (NM) were assessed in ginger. Results revealed that weed density and weed dry biomass at 60 and 120 days after planting (DAP) were considerably lower with BBF followed by R&F than NM. Among mulches, the application of PN recorded lower weed density and dry biomass at 60 and 120 DAP, whereas, at second sampling, there was dramatically reduction of weed dry biomass in PS than IC. The rhizome productivity was improved with BBF (39.3–47.3%) and PS (35.8–42.2%) than FB and NM, respectively. BBF configured plots obtained 46.7–55.3% higher net returns and per day returns with 27.4–34.7% improvement in benefit to cost ratio followed by R&F than FB. Similarly, PS recorded 43.1 to 46.7% higher net returns and per day returns with 34.3 to 40.7% higher benefit to cost ratio over NM. Therefore, suitable land configurations and the use of available crop residues and tree leaf litter as mulch are promising resource conserving sustainable production technologies for ginger cultivation.