Effective weed management under Direct Seeded Rice through use of florpyrauxifen-benzyl plus cyhalofop butyl as post-emergence herbicide in Northwestern India

Direct-seeded rice (DSR) is a viable alternative for unsustainable puddled transplanting method of raising rice crop but presence of the large weed pressure of diverse flora restricts its adoption on a large scale. A two-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate the bio-efficacy of florpyrauxifen-benzyl 20 g/L plus cyhalofop butyl 100 g/L at 120, 150 and 180 g a.i./ha, florpyrauxifen-benzyl 2.5 EC at 31.25 g a.i./ha, cyhalofop butyl 10 EC at 150 g a.i./ha, penoxsulam 1.02% plus cyhalofop butyl 5.1% at 135 g a.i./ha, bispyribac sodium 10 SC at 25 g a.i./ha and unsprayed control during kharif 2019 and 2020 in Department of Agronomy at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. All post-emergence herbicides resulted in reduction in weed density and biomass as compared to unsprayed control treatment. Florpyrauxifen-benzyl 20 g/L plus cyhalofop butyl 100 g/L at 150 g a.i./ ha was the most effective in controlling the population of Echinochloa crus-galli, Cyperus iria and Caesulia axillaris, that resulted in increase in effective tillers by 20.6% in 2019 and 15.9% in 2020 over unsprayed control. Moreover, florpyrauxifen-benzyl 20 g/L plus cyhalofop butyl 100 g/L at 150 g a.i./ha significantly increased the grain yield of DSR by 60.4% in 2019 and 82.0% in 2020 as compared to unsprayed control. Thus, post-emergence application of florpyrauxifen-benzyl 20 g/L plus cyhalofop butyl 100 g/L at 150 g a.i./ha provided an effective control of complex weed flora comprising of grasses, broadleaf weeds and sedges and enhanced the productivity of DSR.