Growth, Yield Attributes and Yield of Kharif Rice (Oryza sativa L.) as Influenced by Establishment Techniques and Weed Management Practices

Abstract

An experiment on establishment techniques and weed management practices in kharif rice was conducted at Agronomy Farm of College of Agriculture, Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Maharashtra during kharif 2017. The field experiment was laid out in a strip plot design with 15 treatment combinations, each replicated three times. The main plot treatments comprised of five crop establishment techniques (T₁: Seed sowing on flat bed with drum seeder, T₂: Transplanting by hand-operated transplanter, T₃: Transplanting by mechanical transplanter, T₄: Dibbling on broad bed and furrow (BBF) with polymulch and T₅: Recommended manual transplanting with puddling) and the subplot treatments consisted of three weed management practices (W₁: Weedy check, W₂: Weed free check [hand weeding at 20, 40 and 60 days after sowing (DAS)/days after transplanting (DAT)] and W₃: Pre-emergence herbicide application (Oxadiargyl @ 0.12 kg ha^-1 + one hand weeding at 30 DAS/DAT). From the results of the investigation, it can be inferred that for obtaining higher growth and yield attributes, grain and straw yield of kharif rice, the rice crop should be established by seed sowing on flat bed by drum seeder along with preemergence application of oxadiargyl @ 0.12 kg ha^-1 + one hand weeding at 30 DAS.