Weed Management in Direct-seeded Semi Dry Rice

An experiment was conducted consecutively during kharif 2005, 2006 and 2007 at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lam Farm, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh to evolve suitable integrated weed management technique for direct-seeded semi dry rice. Results indicated that all the treatments with hand weeding and herbicide integration were found to be superior to alone application of herbicides in reducing weed growth and increasing rice grain yields. Among the integrated treatments, pre-emergence application of pendimethalin at 1.0 kg/ha integrated with one hand weeding at 30 days after sowing (DAS) recorded the lowest weed growth and highest grain yield and was at par with all other treatments with hand weeding and herbicide integration. Pretilachlor 750 g/ha followed by one hand weeding at 30 DAS and pendimethalin 1.0 kg/ha followed by one hand weeding were the cheapest integrated weed management treatments that recorded highest grain yield of semi dry-seeded rice.