Influence of Irrigation Frequency and Weed Management Practices on Growth and Performance of Transplanted Rice (Oryza Sativa L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of Irrigation frequency and weed management practices on performance of transplanted rice at Crop Research Centre, Chirori of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut (U.P.), during kharif season 2018. The experiment was laid out in Split plot design with three replications. The experiment consisted of three Irrigation frequency viz.; (I1) Irrigation at 2 day interval, (I2) Irrigation at 5 days interval, and (I3) Irrigation at 7 days interval in main plot and four weed management practice viz.: Bispyriback sodium 25 g a.i./ha PoE, Cono weeder (at 25 & 45 DAT), Two hand weeding (at 25 & 45 DAT) and weedy check in sub plot. Pusa basmati-1 was used as test variety. Among the different Irrigation frequencies the application of (I2) Irrigation at 5 days interval recorded significantly better growth parameters i.e. plant height and no. of tillers at the all stages of crop growth. The highest yield attributes, grain yield (45.39 q ha-1) and straw yield (55.59 q ha-1) was recorded with (I2) Irrigation at 5 days interval, closely followed by (I1) Irrigation at 2 days interval. Whereas In case of weed management practices the lowest weed density and biomass was recorded with (I1) Irrigation at 2 days interval at all the growth stages, which was significantly lower than rest of the irrigation treatment. Among the weed management treatments two hand weeding recorded significantly higher growth parameters, yield attributes, grain yield (45.39 q ha-1) and straw yield (55.59 q ha-1) than weedy check. However in reference to weed management practices Bispyribac sodium 25 g a.i./ha also recorded significantly lower weed density and biomass at all the growth stages and higher weed control efficiency than weedy check. Cono weeder was also produced significantly less weed density, dry matter than weedy check. The highest gross return, net return and B: C ratio was obtained with (I2) Irrigation at 5 days interval. Use of cono weeder produced significantly higher gross return, net return and B: C ratio than Bispyribac sodium. The highest B: C ratio was recorded by cono weeder, which was significantly higher than weedy check. Therefore it can be concluded that application of I2Irrigation at 5 days interval with cono weeder was best management option to get higher yield as well as profit from rice. (