Herbicides, hand weeding, weed control, cost-benefit ratio

Field experiments were conducted at the Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, PAU, Ludhiana for three years to find out effective weed management technology in chickpea (gram) on loamy sand soil. Integration of one hand weeding (45 days after sowing) with either pre-plant application of trifluralin (Treflan) at 0.50 kg/ha or pre-emergence application of pendimethalin (Stomp) at 0.50 kg/ha proved very effective for controlling weeds as indicated by 82 and 86% reduction in final dry matter accumulation by weeds, respectively, as compared to the control treatment. Both these integrated treatments increased seed yield of chickpea by 60 and 59% than control and 4.0 and 2% than the standard treatment i. e. pre-emergence application of linuron (Afalon) at 0.94 kg/ha, respectively. Also pre-plant application of trifluralin at 1.25 kg/ha performed comparable to herbicide+hand weeding. Net returns and B : C ratio were also highest in pre-plant application of trifluralin at 1.25 kg/ha and it was followed by integration of hand weeding (45 DAS) with either pre-plant application of trifluralin at 0.50 kg/ha or pre-emergence application of pendimethalin at 0.50 kg/ha