Sustainable integrated weed control strategies to reduce herbicide use in sunflower production

This research aims to develop integrated weed control strategies that can effectively reduce the quantity of herbicides used in cultivation of sunflower. To address the challenge of weed management in mechanized crop fields and mitigate the adverse effects on the ecosystem, an experiment with 10 treatments was arranged in randomized block designs and replicated 3 times. The treatments included combinations of herbicide application, band application of herbicide and power weeder weeding. The higher weed control efficiency (WCE) was achieved in a weed-free environment. Additionally, higher WCE was observed in the treatment where weeds were managed through band application of pendimethalin (38.7 capsule suspension (CS)) in the seed row as a pre-emergence method and weeding was done with a power weeder twice. These 2 treatments registered more than 90 % WCE due to lesser weed occurrence. The present investigation also registered higher grain yield under weed-free control (2212 kg/ha). It was tailed by Pre-emergence (PE) herbicide (1 kg/ha of Pendimethalin (38.7 CS)) in seed row after irrigation followed by (fb) power weeder twice (on 15-20 and 30-35 DAS), PE herbicide (1 kg/ha of Pendimethalin (38.7 CS)) in seed row before irrigation fb power weeder twice (on 15-20 and 30-35 DAS) and PE herbicide (1 kg/ha of Pendimethalin (30 EC)) in seed row after irrigation fb power weeder twice (on 15-20 and 30-35 days after sowing (DAS)). Based on the results, pendimethalin (38.7 CS) can also be applied either before or after irrigation, as it will not significantly lose its efficacy in controlling weeds. These findings have practical implications for sunflower cultivation, offering effective strategies for integrated weed control.