Economic weeding method for irrigated rice production in Bangladesh

The study was conducted at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Regional Station, Comilla, during three rice growing seasons. The experiment consists of six weeding treatments with three replications. The objective of the experiment was to determine an economic weeding method as well as to improve water management practices of paddy rice. The study indicates that the continuous ponding (100–150 mm) is not effective for weed control and high yield. Similarly, continuous ponding of 30–70 mm with one hand weeding is not economically sound. Two hand weeding or one hand weeding plus herbicides can be recommended where labors are available. Otherwise only herbicides should be used to make weeding economic for profitable rice production. The study reveals that continuous ponding required about 1.5–2.0 times more water than intermittent irrigation.