Conservation tillage, Maize, Organic weed management, Permanent bed, Residue, Rice, Weed control efficiency

Weeds pose a significant threat to crop productivity, and ineffective management can exacerbate the issue. Therefore, it is crucial to reduce weed severity to maintain and enhance crop productivity. With this aim, a field study was conducted at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University to evaluate the impact of organic weed management (OWM) on the weed dynamics and yield of rice–maize rotation under conservation agriculture. Four tillage practices as main plots and five OWM treatments as subplots arranged in split-plot design with three replications. The tillage management treatments included ZTR fb ZTM: zero-tillage (ZT) direct-seeded rice (DSR) followed by (fb) ZT-maize, PBDSR+R fb PBDSM+R: DSR fb maize both in permanent bed (PB) with residue retention, PBDSR-R fb PBDSM-R: DSR fb maize both in PB without residue retention and CTR fb CTM: conventionally tilled rice fb maize. In OWM, five treatments were as follows: UWC: unweeded   check, VM: vermicompost mulching, PVM: phosphorous (P) enriched VM, LM: live-mulch of Sesbania spp. in rice and Pisum sativum in maize, WFC: weed-free check. PBDSR+R fb PBDSM+R recorded significantly lowest weed biomass and highest weed control efficiency over other treatments in both the years. Except weed free treatment, LM reported significantly higher yield attributes and grain yield of rice and maize over other OWM practices across the two years of study. The PBDSR+R fb PBDSM+R recorded significantly highest grain yield of rice (6.3, 6.6 t/ha) and maize (9.3, 9.4 t/ha) throughout the study. The study revealed that residue incorporation under rice–maize rotation with permanent bed system along with LM improved the weed control efficiency, yield attributes and yield.