1Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner-334 006, Rajasthan, India.
2Division of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agricultural Biotechnology, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour-813 210, Bihar, India.
3Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, Uttarakhand, India.
4Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour-813 210, Bihar, India.
*Corresponding Author: Rima Kumari, Division of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agricultural Biotechnology, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour-813 210, Bihar, India. Email: rimakumari@bausabour.ac.in
Blackgram is one of the most important pulse crop cultivated in India. It is a rich source of protein, carbohydrate, fat, amino acids and vitamins as human food and also serves as highly nutritive livestock feed. Despite of having multiple benefits poor agronomic and management practices viz., use of poor-quality seeds, poor crop establishment, moisture stress at critical stages of crop growth, low fertilizer input and inadequate weed management are responsible for low productivity of blackgram. Out of these poor weed management is one of the most important factors that needs focus of ongoing research and researchers to cut down the yield losses in blackgram. Weeds are the major biological constraint that leads to decline in crop yields. If not controlled in the early crop growth stage, they can reduce the yield up to 27–78 per cent. There are numerous weed control methods like cultural, physical/ mechanical, biological and chemical available by which we can successfully controlled weeds. Out of these, the chemical weed control method is the most efficient way to control them by sequential application of pre-emergence and post-emergence herbicides in summer sown blackgram. Due to the availability of several herbicide molecules (chemical) in the market, its easy and very effective way to control weeds when applied in the right amount at the right time. Several weed scientists also suggest that allelopathy can be used to control and may offer substitute to chemical weed control or may lead to reduction in dose of herbicides applied. So, it can also be said that the integrated weed management method is the key to sustainable crop production worldwide and will continue to be the main pillar for weed control in blackgram. The present review paper is focussed on to get a clear understanding of the chemical method of weed control in black gram and has been undertaken to study the efficacy of pre- emergence application of herbicides followed by post-emergence application of herbicides in summer blackgram.
Allelochemicals, Blackgram, Herbicides, Super-weed, Weed management
