Weed growth and productivity of mustard under conservation agriculture based a rice–mustard–greengram cropping system

Abstract

During rabi seasons, 2022-23 and 2023-24, ARS, SOADU, Bhubaneswar conducted an experiment to study weed management on mustard in rice-based cropping system under conservation agriculture. Three vertical weed management strips and four horizontal tillage strips were replicated three times in experiment in a strip plot design. According to the results, ZT+ 60% residue outperformed other tillage systems in terms of energy parameters, yield attributes and yield while recording significantly lower values for weed density and dry weight. Conservation tillage recorded 34.06-47.86% higher seed yield than conventional tillage. The lowest weed density and higher value of energy parameter and yield was recorded under integrated application of pendimethalin followed by one hand weeding. However zero tillage + 60% residue along with pendimethalin fb one hand weeding recorded the lowest density and dry weight of weed and higher value of yield attributes and seed yield. The highest net return and return/ rupee invested was recorded under zero tillage+ 60 % R along with pendimethalin fb one hand weeding. Thus, ZT+ 60% residue along with pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha + one hand weeding at 35 DAS was determined to be promising for efficient weed management, increased productivity, and profitability of mustard.