Email:
dhanapalgn@yahoo.com
Address:
Main Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560 024
Finger Millet, Groundnut, Long term herbicide usage, Weed shift
The field experiment was conducted during Kharif 2010 with finger millet Hebbal, Bengaluru. The finger millet crop was grown followed by groundnut during summer and continued up to 2014. The pooled data of five years of finger millet crop from 2010 to 2014 during Kharif indicated that application of butachlor at 0.75 kg/ha more or less gave similar grain yield (3.12 t/ha) to hand weeding twice (3.52 t/ha) due to good control of weeds. Continuous application of alachlor 1.0 kg /ha in groundnut and 2,4-D sodium salt 0.75 kg/ha in finger millet paved way for dominance of grasses particularly Digitaria marginata, Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Echinochloa colona, whereas pendimethalin treated plots showed higher emergence of Commelina benghalensis. A saving in weeding cost to an extent of ` 6,810 to ` 6,980/ha in finger millet was realized by using herbicides as compared to hand weeding. None of the herbicides affected the establishment, growth and yield of succeeding crops over the past five years, in spite of herbicides being applied continuously on the same piece of land.