Adoption and impact assessment of weed management technologies in wheat and greengram under conservation agriculture system in central India

Rice-wheat is the major cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic plains and is also practiced on considerable area in Madhya Pradesh. Rice-wheat production system under conventional practices involves tedious and time-consuming methods of field preparation and weed management; increases cost of production, deteriorates soil fertility, and do not offer desired benefits for increasing the grain yields. In conventional agriculture, burning of crop leftover residue has become a major challenge that leads to loss of precious plant nutrients and deteriorates environmental quality. In order to mitigate these problems, technically-feasible, economically-viable and ecologically-permissible technologies need to be essentially adopted. A technology is required to facilitate timely sowing in standing stubbles, minimize weed infestation, lower cost of production, improve fertilizer/water-use efficiency and improve soil health. To reap the benefits of conservation agriculture (CA), studies were conducted at farmers ’fields in rice-wheat-greengram cropping system in black-cotton soils in Madhya Pradesh for consecutive five years. Sowing was done with Happy Seeder. Emergence of weeds from upper soil surface was effectively controlled by herbicides. Results showed that the benefits of CA can well be harnessed in black-cotton soils with rice-wheat-greengram cropping system. Retention of crop residues on soil surface provided an effective mulch cover for nutrient and moisture conservation, temperature moderation and weed control.