DEVELOPMENT AND APPRAISAL OF ECONOMICAL AND SUSTAINABLE APPROACH FOR WEED MANAGEMENT IN DRILL SEEDED AEROBIC RICE (Oryza sativa L.)

Conventional rice cultivation by puddling and transplanting is a labor intensive activity. Water scarcity is a threat for the sustainability of transplanted rice. In many areas of Asia, rice transplantion of rice is being replaced by direct seeding as farmers tried to solve the problems of labor cost and water scarcity but weed control is one of the major constraints to direct seeding. So, to control weeds in direct seeded rice present studies were designed. A two years study was conducted to develop sustainable and economical methods for managing weeds in aerobic rice grown by dry direct-seeding at Student’s Farm, Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during the years 2008 and 2009. Experiment was laid out in RCBD with five weed management strategies: hand weeding, hoeing with kasula, inter-row cultivation with tine cultivator, inter-row cultivation with spike hoe and chemical control with Nominee 100 SC along with control (no weeding). Weed dry weight was 300 g m^-2, 257 g m^-2, 225 g m^-2 and 157 g m^-2 less in hand weeding, hoeing, tine cultivator and Nominee 100 SC respectively than no weeding. Paddy yield was 221%, 203%, 181% and 105% more in hand weeding, hoeing, tine cultivator and Nominee 100 SC respectively than no weeding.