Non-chemical methods of weed management in maize under organic production system

A field experiment was conducted to study the non-chemical methods of weed management in organically grown maize during the year 2010 and 2011. Among the 9 weed management treatments, soybean intercropping + one mechanical weeding (20 DAS) and 2 mechanical weeding (20 and 40 DAS) + mash intercropping being at par with each other resulted in significantly lower weed dry weight, higher yield attributes and maize equivalent yield over other treatments. One mechanical weeding at 20 DAS gave highest benefit-cost ratio of 4.3 followed by 2 mechanical weeding at 20 and 40 DAS and soybean intercropping + 1 MW (20 DAS), which gave the benefit: cost ratio of 2.3.