Email:
drbhagwati@gmail.com
Address:
Division of Agronomy, SKUAST-J, Main Campus Chatha, Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir 180 009
Economics, Forest pastures rehabilitation, Grubbing, Glyphosate, Lantana camara, Manual cutting, Perennial grasses
A study on rejuvenation of wild sage (Lantana camara L.) infested forest pastures in Shivalik foot-hills of Jammu & Kashmir was conducted from April 2006 to December 2008. The study included manual cuttings of Lantana bushes; manual cuttings followed by application of 1% glyphosate on its regenerated growth of 30 cm in height; and manual grubbings. These were followed by either no plantation of grasses, planting either of hybrid napier and Setaria cuttings. Results of the study revealed that the fresh bio-mass of Lantana bushes recorded a sizeable reduction ranging from 66 to 99% under different treatments over its initial average fresh bio-mass value of 28 kg/25 m2. Likewise, a significant reduction in the number of Lantana bushes per unit area to the extent of 67-99% over its initial average value of 6 bushes/25 m2 was also recorded with grubbing and the herbicide applied treatments. Application of glyphosate 30 cm regenerated growth of Lantana bushes and grubbing treatments followed by planting either of hybrid napier and Setaria were found equally effective in rehabilitation of Lantana infested forest pastures as both of these grasses provided good soil cover and recorded higher forage yields under these treatments i.e. hybrid napier 1.81 to 2.07 t/ha and Setaria 0.98 to1.02 t/ha.These two treatments were also found significantly superior to the repeated Lantana cutting treatments and decreased fresh Lantana bio-mass by 94.20 to 99.03% over its initial bio-mass value. However, between these two most effective treatments i.e. the management of Lantana bushes with the application of glyphosate followed by planting of either hybrid napier and Setaria grasses were found economically superior, with a net saving of rupees 6,640/ha, over the grubbings of Lantana followed by planting either of these grasses .