Competition between Crop and Weed and Weed Control in Dry Direct Seeded Rice

This study was conducted to evaluate the major weeds occurred in direct seeded rice and their compition with rice, and to establish the effective weed control method. The important weeds occurring in dry direct seeded rice were Echinochloa crusgalli, Cyperus amuricus, Rorippa islandica, etc. Among them, Echinochloa crusgalli was the most dominant weed species. In view of the Simpson's dominance index, the maximum number of the weeds was observed at 30 days after seeding, showing 0.26, but decreased as the time passed. In other hand, Simpson's dominance index of weed dry weight increased from 0.09 at 15DAS(days after seeding) to 0.28 at 60DAS indicating that particular weed such as barnyardgrass was dominating the fields. The plant height and the tiller number of rice in the dry direct seeded rice were not greatly affected by the time and duration of competition with weeds, but rice yield was greatly influenced by them. The yield reduction was observed when compition between rice and weeds were initiated at 20 to 40 DAS till the harvesting time. The highest weed control efficacy was observed at the treatment of systematic herbicide application such as soil applied Butachlor followed by Mefenacet/Bensulfuron-methyl/Dymron at 30 DAS after seeding, and soil applied Dimepiperate/Bensulfuron-methyl mixture as a preemergence type gave also an excellent control.