PERCEPTION OF FARMERS REGARDING EFFECT OF VARIOUS WEED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN ONION CROP

This present study was conducted in 2011 to examine the perception of farmers regarding the effect of various weed management practices in onion crop in five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Province of Pakistan. The five districts included Swabi, Mardan, Charsadda, Malakand and Swat. Data were collected by survey method from 200 respondents, randomly selected 40 farmers from each district. Information were collected from farmers regarding weedy check (control), manual weed control and chemical weed control which included herbicides (Dual Gold S-metolachlor using @ 2 L ha^-1, Pendimethalin 33% @ 2 L ha^-1 and Buctril super @ 1.5 L ha^-1). Main weeds in onion crop were Convolvulus arvensis, Euphorbia helioscopia, Coronopus didymus, Avena fatua, Rumex dentatus, Melilotus indica, Medicago denticulata and Chenopodium murale. Data analysis showed that the different weed management practices in onion significantly increased bulb yield of the crop as compared to weedy check. However, farmers perceived that pendimethalin @ 2 L ha^-1 was the best herbicide as compared to the other weed management practices used by farmers of the area. The onion bulb yield was highest in the manual weed control followed by pendimethalin @ 2 L ha^-1. The study recommends that both manual weeding and pendimethalin may be used for a desirable weed control in onion and for achieving higher onion bulb yield.