Identification of suitable integrated weed management approaches for effective weed control in dry direct-seeded basmati rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The dry direct-seeded rice (dry-DSR) can redeem farmers from traditional puddled transplanted rice PTR) due to its fewer water requirements, ease and making rapid sowing feasible. The timely sowing of wheat, mustard, lentil and potato along with high-profit margins but due to heavy weed infestation, and weed-crop competition a failure in weed control which causes a yield loss of 60 to100% depending upon the severity of weed infestation. The experiment was designed under RCBD with four replications having 12 treatments. By integrating different weed control tools viz., hoeing, stale seedbed technique, zero-tillage sowing in stubbles, criss-cross sowing, stale seedbed technique, and bispyribac sodium at 50 g a.i. ha-1 applied twice at 21 and 40 days after sowing (DAS). The maximum weed control efficacy (98%) was resulted by the treatment hoeing executed four times viz; 14 days after crop emergence (DAE) (after completion of germination), 25 DAE (tillering), 60 DAE (panicle initiation), and 80 DAE (grain filling) stages of crop growth and development. However, the best treatment in terms of both the effectiveness as well as an economic weed control was criss-cross sowing + bispyribac-sodium 50 g a.i. ha-1 applied twice (21 and 40 DAS), which was followed by stale seedbed technique + bispyribac-sodium 50 g a.i. ha-1 applied twice as these treatments achieved the highest weed control efficiencies (96 and 95%) along with marginal rates of return (2594 and 2182%), during two years, respectively.