Weed management strategies in elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) under different agro environments in India
![](/public/icon/gor.png)
![](/public/icon/pdf.png)
Keywords:
Corm yield, Elephant foot yam, Herbicide, Net return, WeedingAbstract
In elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson], weeds are the major constraints cause yield reduction up to 100% due to its very slow initial sprouting, establishment and plant growth. Information on proper weed management in elephant foot yam in India is limited as its commercial cultivation started very recently. For arriving at suitable and better weed control, field experiments were conducted for 3 growing seasons (2019 to 2021) at ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala with 8 treatments in 6 different agro-climatic zones of India. The treatments included a combination of pre emergence (PE) and post emergence (POE) herbicides, PE followed by hand weeding (HW), intercropping followed by POE, HW with POE, POE alone, and weed control ground cover cloth mulch (WCGCC), three HW, and a weedy check were included for comparison. Weed flora was dominated by broad-leaf weeds, Digera arvensis (L.), Commelina benghalensis (L.); grasses, Pennisetum pedicellatum Trin., Cynodon dactylon (L.) pers.; and the sedge, Cyperus rotundus (L.), in most of the locations. Pooled analysis of data collected over different locations indicated that the lower mean weed biomass (21.24 g/m) and higher mean corm yield (35.13 t/ha), higher mean net income (`0.326 million/ha) were recorded with weed control ground cover mulch and higher mean B:C ratio (2.39) by application of post emergence herbicide at 30, 60 and 90 days after planting (DAP).
Downloads
References
Awasthy P, Bhambri M C, Pandey N, Bajpai R K and Dwivedi S K. 2014. Effect of water management and mulches on weed dynamics and yield of maize. The Ecoscan 6: 473–78.
Brogi C, Huisman J A, Herbst M, Weihermüller L, Klosterhalfen A, Montzka C, Reichenau T G and Vereecken H. 2020. Simulation of spatial variability in crop leaf area index and yield using agroecosystem modeling and geophysics-based quantitative soil information. Vadose Zone Journal 19(1): 1–24. doi: 10.1002/ vzj2.20009
Chandrasekara A and Kumar T J. 2016. Roots and tuber crops as functional foods: A review on phytochemical constituents and their potential health benefits. International Journal of Food Science 2016: 3631647. doi: 10.1155/2016/3631647
Das T K, Tuti M D, Sharma R, Paul T and Mirja P R. 2012. Weed management research in India: An overview. Indian Journal of Agronomy 57(3): 148–56.
George T C and Sindhu P V. 2017. Weed management in elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicholson]. Journal of Tropical Agriculture 55(1): 76–80.
Gill G S and Vijaya Kumar K. 1969. Weed index- A new method of reporting weed control trials. Indian Journal of Agronomy 14: 96–98.
Guillaume J, Elizabeth P and Jiangui L. 2012. Using leaf area index, retrieved from optical imagery, in the STICS crop model for predicting yield and biomass of field crops. Field Crops Research 131: 63–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2012.02.012 Khanna S S. 1989. Farm planning: The agro-climatic approach. Survey of Indian Agriculture, pp. 28–35. The Hindu, Madras, India.
Mohan C R, Nair G M, George J, Ravindran C S and Ravi V. 2000. Production Technology of Tuber Crops, pp. 174. ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Kerala, India.
Nedunchezhiyan M, Byju G, Veena S S and Ravi V. 2017. Herbicides and polythene mulching effects on yield of cassava.
Indian Journal of Weed Science 49: 58–62.
Nedunchezhiyan M, Laxminarayana K and Chauhan VBS. 2018. Soil microbial activities and yield of elephant foot yam as influenced by weed management practices in Alfisols. International Journal of Vegetable Science 24(6): 583–96. doi:10.1080/19315260.2018.1454567
NHB (National Horticultural Board). 2022. Horticultural statistics at a glance. NHB, Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Horticulture Statistics Division, New Delhi, India.
Patil V C and Patil S V. 1993. Studies on weed control in bamboo. Indian Journal of Weed Science 75(1): 83–86.
Ravi V, Ravindran C S, Suja G, James George, Nedunchezhiyan M, Byju G and Naskar S K. 2011. Crop physiology of elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.Nicolson)]. Advances in Horticultural Science 25(1): 51–63.
Sunitha S, Suresh Kumar J, Susan John K and Neduncheziyan M. 2020a. Crop Production Experiments. Standard Operating Procedures for AICRP on Tuber Crops, pp. 36–48. Sunitha S, Suresh Kumar J, Ravi V and James George (Eds). ICR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Kerala, India.
Sekhar L, Thomas C G and Sindhu P V. 2017. Weed management in elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicholson]. Journal of Tropical Agriculture 55(1): 76–80.
Suja G, Sreekumar J, Byju G, Jyoti A N and Veena A S. 2021. Weed cloth, an option for integrated weed management for short-duration cassava. Agronomy Journal 113(2): 1895–1908. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20528
Sunitha S, James G, Suja G, Jyothi A N and A Rajalekshmi. 2020b. Water smart technologies for irrigation water management of elephant foot yam in tropical zones of India. Journal of Water and Climate Change 11(4): 1495–1504. https://doi.org/10.2166/ wcc.2019.266
Sunitha S, James G, Suja G, Ravi V, Haripriya S and Sreekumar J. 2018. Irrigation schedule for maximum corm yield and water productivity in elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson). The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 88: 1013–17.
Suresh Kumar J, Sunitha S and Nedunchezhiyan M. 2020a. Weed control approaches for tropical tuber crops - A review. International Journal of Vegetable Science 27(3): 1–17. https:// doi.org/10.1080/19315260.2020.1839156
Suresh Kumar J, Sunitha S, Sreekumar J, Nedunchezhiyan M, Mamatha K, Biswajith D, Sengupta S, Kamalkumaran P R, Mitra S, Tarafdar J, Damodaran V, Singh R S, Narayan A, Prasad R, Gudadhe P, Singh R, Desai K and Srikanth B. 2020b. Integrated weed management in elephant foot yam. Indian Journal of Weed Science 52(1): 69–73.
Verma S K, Singh S B, Meena R N, Prasad S K, Meena R S and Gaurav 2015. A review of weed management in India: The need of new directions for sustainable agriculture. The Bioscan 10: 253–63.
Downloads
Submitted
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The copyright of the articles published in The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences is vested with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, which reserves the right to enter into any agreement with any organization in India or abroad, for reprography, photocopying, storage and dissemination of information. The Council has no objection to using the material, provided the information is not being utilized for commercial purposes and wherever the information is being used, proper credit is given to ICAR.