GROWTH AND YIELD OF MACHINE TRANSPLANTED RICE AS INFLUENCED BY WEED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is considered as the “global grain†and is the staple food for Asia and for more than half of the global population. In India, it
contributes to about 40 percent of the total food grain production. Several factors are responsible for reducing the yield of transplanted rice. However, weed infestation is the major threat to productivity of transplanted rice and causes 45-51% loss in rice yields in India
(Veeraputhiran and Bala subramanian, 2013). Transplanted rice in the country encounters diverse type of weed flora consisting of grasses, broad-leaf weeds and sedges. Weeds, by virtue of their high adaptability
and faster growth, dominate the crop habitat and reduce the crop yield. Under machine transplanting inter row spacing of 30 cm allows severe weed infestation in the field and finally resulting in significant yield loss.
Thus, weed management is an essential practice of machine transplanted rice and farmers are looking for better weed management options in machine transplanting.