Weed pressure management through tillage and weed control approaches in rice under resource conserving agriculture

The present investigation was conducted during three seasons i.e. Kharif seasons in 2019 and 2020 at research cum instruction farm, at Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), where adequate facilities for irrigation and drainage exist. The soil of the experimental field was silty clay in texture. The soil was neutral in reaction (6.86) with normal electrical conductivity (0.349). It had low nitrogen, medium phosphorus and high potassium contents.The experiment was laid out in split plot design with five tillage practices (main plot) i.e. two conventional transplanted rice CT (TPR), one conventional direct-seeded rice CT (DSR), one zero tillage (ZT) and one zero tillage with residues (ZT + R), and three weed management practices (sub-plot) treatments replicated thrice. The test varieties taken was “ IGKV R1” sown as per the treatments with recommended dose of fertilizers. The outcomes explicated that among tillage practices, transplanted system of establishment i.e. CT (TPR)-CT-CT proved to be most beneficial in terms of significant economic produce, lowest weed pressure but ZT + R-ZT + R-ZT + R proved with about comparable yield i.e. only 8.39% lesser yield and about 19% lesser weed control efficiency (WCE) than transplanted system i.e. CT (TPR)-CT-CT. Moreover, the yield in zero tillage system increased in second year of trial unlike in CT (TPR)-CT-CT. Hence, long term trial of ZT + R-ZT + R-ZT + R is more eco-friendly and sustainable. Among weed management practices, IWM i.e. oxadiargyl 80 g ha − 1 PE fb hand weeding at 25 DAS/T proved to be registered highest value of all the parameters taken for study. Moreover, it registered 47% higher grain yield than weedy check and 12% higher weed control efficiency (WCE) than recommended herbicides treatment i.e. pyrazosulfuron 20 g ha − 1 fb penoxsulam 22.5 g ha − 1 PoE.