Effects of Cow-based Preparations and Mulching on Weed Management and Nodulation in Chickpea under Intercropping System

Mulching is one of agronomic practices with goals of lowering soil evaporation, preserving moisture, regulating soil temperature, inhibiting weed development, and enhancing microbial activity. It is mostly predicated on the recycling of biomass within the farm, with a focus on biomass mulching, the use of cow dung and urine preparations within the farm and preserving soil aeration. A field experiment was conducted for two years during the spring season (2019-20 and 2020-21) at Palampur, Himachal Pradesh (India), which comprises different combination of ghanjeevamrit (mixture of urine, dung, jaggery and chickpea flour), jeevamrit (mixture of urine, dung, jaggery, chickpea flour, handful soil, and water) and mulching (added at rate of 10 t ha-1). The weed count, weed dry matter, and yield of wheat as well as chickpeas were studied under sub-temperate humid zone (India). Data showed that application of cow-based preparations (ghanjeevamrit- added at rate of 0.5 t ha-1, jeevamrit-1st spray at rate 5%, 2nd spray 7.5% and subsequent sprays 10% jeevamrit in the water with the rate of 200 L acre-1 at 21 days interval) and mulching significantly affected weed count, dry matter, weed control efficiency and number of nodules of chickpea. Based on data of both years significantly lower weed count and dry weight at 120 DAS (before that weed count and dry weight was not affected significantly) was recorded in treatment T7(ghanjeevamrit + jeevamrit + mulching) which was statistically at par with T3 (mulching), T5 (ghanjeevamrit + mulching), T6 (jeevamrit + mulching) and T8 (control). At 150 DAS, significantly lower weed count was recorded in T5 which was at par with T3 and T6 and a significantly highest count was recorded in T4 (ghanjeevamrit + jeevamrit). At harvest, the highest weed count and dry weight of weed were found in treatment T2 (jeevamrit), T4, T1 (ghanjeevamrit), and T8. Similarly, the weed control efficiency was recorded numerically highest under T7 treatment. Minimum weed count and weed dry weight were found in the T7 treatment. Significantly highest nodule count in chickpea was recorded in T7 followed by T4, whereas the lowest was recorded in T8. Therefore, this study highlights the combined use of cow-based preparations with mulching to decrease weed count, dry matter as well as the number of nodules of chickpea increases under natural farming.