Efficient Weed Management Practices for Organic Rice Production System

This study was conducted to find out the effective weed management option for organic rice and to work out the economics of such weed management practices for organic rice. Weed is a ubiquitous species that competes with important crops for light, nutrients, space, and water, resulting in a deterioration of the perfect environment for crop growth. A field trial was conducted during kharif season of 2017-18 and 2018-19 in red sandy clay loam soils of Agricultural Research Station, Ragolu. The trial was taken up with ten organic weed management treatments in randomized block design in three replications. From the data analysed for two years it was revealed that weeds can be managed in organic rice by Summer ploughing followed by Green manuring followed by 3 weeks puddling interval + One conoweeding at 15 days after transplanting +Need based hand weeding at 40 days after transplanting as it has recorded the highest mean grain yield (6542 kg/ha), Weed Control Efficiency (77.77%) and benefit cost ratio(1.50) as compared to other organic methods and hence can be recommended for organic rice production. As proposed climate change models indicate increased variability of growing season weather shifts in weed communities and increased competitiveness of weeds it will become more difficult to predict the severity of crop–weed interference. Future weed management research should emphasize the development of robust tools and management techniques to overcome this variability and uncertainty.