Efficacy of different post-emergence herbicides in chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

To study the effect of herbicides on weed dynamics and productivity of chickpea under Bihar situation, a field experiment was carried out at BAU farm, Sabour, Bihar, India. Ten treatments consisted with eight herbicidal treatments, pre-emergence application of pendimethalin 1000 g/ha, oxyfluorfen 150 g/ha; post-emergence application of quizalofop-ethyl 50 g/ha, imazethapyr 50 g/ha, propaquizafop 25.2 g/ha, topramezone 40 g/ha individually and two of different herbicidal combinations as imazethapyr + imazamox (Readymix) 60 g/ha (PoE) and clodinafop-propargyl + na-aciflurofen (Readymix) 220 g/ha (PoE) along with two hand weedings at 30 & 50 DAS and weedy check, were tested in randomized block design with three replications. Two hand weedings recorded significantly reduced weed density and weed dry matter at 60 and 90 DAS with WCE of 91.73 & 93.60% at 60 & 90 DAS respectively and was similar to use of topramezone 40 g/ha. This herbicide treatment resulted in maximum plant height (54.22cm at harvest), number of branches/pant (21.77), number of pods/plant (48.86), test weight (21.62g), grain yield (1.63 t/ha), gross return (Rs. 79,560/ha), net return (Rs. 47,404/ha) and B:C ratio (1.47) compared to other herbicide applications.