An integrated approach to controlling weeds in machine-transplanted lowland rice in Korea

An experiment was conducted to examine integrated weed-control techniques for machine-transplanted lowland rice in Korea. Six treatments combining tillage, water and herbicide regimes were compared in a single field trial in 1981. The dissimilarity coefficient (reflecting dissimilarity in botanical composition between two communities) based on weed species present was generally high when comparing herbicide-treated and untreated plots when assessed at the tillering stage of rice. At rice maturity, the highest dissimilarity value was shown between the minimum tillage plot (one rotavation and one harrowing) and the improved treatments which included other cultivations and herbicides. Broad-leaved weeds became dominant in the plots that did not receive any herbicide application whereas sedge weeds became dominant when herbicides were applied. The lowest weed number and weed weights throughout the whole season were recorded on the plot that received the herbicides butachlor and benthiocarb as part of the seedbed preparation with a subsequent application of piperophos/dimethametryn mixture 10 days after transplanting. The highest grain yield, 6·8 t/ha, was harvested from this plot. This was significantly higher than yields from the conventional weeding treatments of single applications of either butachlor (5·8 t/ha) 5 days after transplanting or piperophos/dimethametryn (4·4 t/ha) 10 days after transplanting.     

Weed management in aerobic rice systems

Aerobic rice systems can substitute the conventional rice cultivation system in the wake of water shortage and energy crises. The major constraint in the success of aerobic rice is high weed infestation. Hence, we have discussed the weed flora, yield losses, herbicide-resistant weeds, need for integrated weed management, and approaches to manage weeds in aerobic rice systems. A review of several studies indicated that 90 weed species were competing with rice under aerobic systems, causing 23–100% reductions in grain yield. Weed control in aerobic rice gets difficult due to shifts in weed flora and herbicide resistance development in weeds. A wide increase in grain yield (15–307%) by implementing different weed control practices elaborates the scope of weed management in aerobic rice. Practices, such as soil solarization, sowing of competitive crop cultivars, stale seedbed preparation, mulch application, correct fertilization, and intercropping, were found to have particular significance for managing weeds in aerobic rice systems. Moreover, hand weeding and mechanical control were more effective when combined with other weed control methods. Herbicides, such as pendimethalin, 2,4-D, penoxsulam, ethoxysulfuron, bispyribac-sodium, triclopyr, imazosulfuron, bensulfuron, pretilachlor, and metsulfuron, were found most effective in aerobic rice systems. Keeping in view the severity of weed infestation in these systems and the evolution of herbicide resistance, reliance on a single control method is out of question. Hence, the approach of integrated weed management is the most appropriate for proper weed management and the subsequent success of rice cultivation using aerobic systems.     

Weed management challenges in rice (Oryza sativa L.) for food security in Bhutan: A review

Rice is the most important and staple cereal in Bhutan, currently grown over an area of 19,549 hectares with a total production of 77,038 tonnes. However, its yield is limited in certain regions due to weed competition with losses of up to 50% reported through infestation from both annual and perennial weeds. In this article, we describe the current weed management practices in rice in Bhutan and identify challenges and prospects to guide future weed control research given that weed science in Bhutan is in its infancy. Generally, the most common form of weed control is hand weeding. However, herbicide use is also increasing as farmers face labour shortages on farms and realize the benefits of herbicides, especially in reducing the time taken to weed crops. But the continued use of the single chemical butachlor is a concern given the possible development of herbicide resistance. Research priorities for weed management in rice in Bhutan include a systematic assessment of crop yield losses; prioritization of weed importance and species shifts; mechanical and cultural alternatives to hand weeding; herbicide resistance testing and management; collective community approaches to area-wide management; and weed management options to suit alternative rice production systems. The ecology and management of the perennial semi-aquatic Potamogeton distinctus needs serious attention owing to its prevalence in major rice areas and potential alone to cause significant yield losses of up to 37%. The successful experiences and challenges in neighbouring Asian countries should also help to guide future weed control research in Bhutan.     

Weed management in resource conservation production systems in Pakistan

Resource conservation technologies (RCTs) offers pragmatic options to cut down fuel, labor and water resources. In Pakistan, the use of RCTs started in the form of a New Zealand imported zero tillage wheat (ZTW) drill in 1983, and now the ZTW plantation has reached to an area of 507,050 ha. However, initially, the widespread adoption of the ZTW plantation was hampered because of insufficient training and dissemination of information on the proper use of the machinery and planting techniques in Pakistan. In the past few years, rapid uptake of RCTs has been noted in rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) in Punjab region of Pakistan, the main hub of RCTs, due to direct involvement of farmers during experimentation, and strong collaboration with local machinery manufacturers. In 1992, the inverted ‘T’ openers' technology, was introduced in locally manufactured ZT drills, which helped to make zero tillage (ZT), a user-friendly technology, acceptable at farm level. Now ZT drills equipped with inverted ‘T’ coulter technology are available at cheap and affordable rates. Still many farmers do not have access to RCTs machinery, which requires serious attention of policy makers. After the preliminary experiments on direct seeded aerobic rice (DSAR) in RWCS by rice-wheat consortium and Cereal System Initiative for South Asia, the technology has been widely spread on large area in RWCS in Pakistan in recent years. The other RCTs such as laser land levelling and bed planting of crops are also taking roots in various cropping zones of Pakistan, especially in RWCS. Although, RCTs resolves time and edaphic conflicts, reduces the production cost and save plenty of water; nonetheless weed problem has emerged as serious issues in the adoption of RCTs (especially ZTW, DSAR) in Pakistan. In ZT systems, no preparatory tillage is carried out, which favors the growth of many weeds (e.g., perennial weeds). Likewise, absence of flooding conditions in DSAR favors the growth of many weeds. Change in weed flora from annual to perennial weeds has been observed in ZT systems. However, pre-emergence application of pendimethalin, thiobencarb, butachlor, oxyfluorfen oxadiazon, and nitrofen followed by post-emergence herbicides such as ethoxysulfuron, bispyribac sodium, acetochlor and butachlor provides fair weed control in DSAR in Pakistan. Nonetheless repeated use of herbicides with similar mode of action for managing weeds in ZTW and DSAR in Pakistan may induce herbicide resistance in weeds as has been reported in various parts of the world. In this scenario, the integrated weed management strategies may be useful to control weeds in ZTW and DSAR. The strategies for weed management in DSAR may include the use of stale seedbed technique, use of mulches of allelopathic crops like sorghum, crop rotations with allelopathic crops, intercropping with allelopathic crops, use of allelopathic water extracts, and breeding of competitive crop cultivars. Moreover, strong socio-economic mobilization at farmer fields, extensive research, development, extension and training strategies are required for long term sustainability and tackling the problems of weeds in Pakistan for the rapid uptake of RCTs.     

不同耕作和种植方式对稻田杂草及水稻产量的影响

采用田间试验,研究了7种不同水稻耕作和种植方式[水田翻耕移栽(puddling transplanting,PT)、免耕移栽(no tillage transplanting,NTT)、水田翻耕滚筒湿播(puddling drum wet seeding,PDWS)、免耕滚筒湿播(no tillage drum wet seeding,NTDWS)、传统耕作旱穴播(conventional tillage dry drilling,CTDD)、沟垄灌溉旱穴播(furrow irrigated raised beds system dry drilling,FIRBSDD)和免耕旱穴播(no-tillage dry-drilling,NTDD)对稻田杂草和水稻产量的影响。结果表明,PT处理下水稻产量最高,杂草干物质量最低;与移栽相比,直播(direct seeded rice,DSR),包括旱直播和湿直播,杂草生长能力最强,且不管有无杂草均降低了水稻产量;直播处理因杂草使水稻减产91.4%~99.0%,而PT和NTT处理分别减产16.0%和42.0%;香附子、龙爪茅、长穗苋、珠子草和假海马齿等杂草种类在DSR处理中大量出现,但在PT处理中未出现。大田示范试验结果表明,普通水稻品种(HKR-47和IR-64)在DSR处理较PT处理减产达15.8%,但优质水稻品种(Sharbati和PB-1)在两处理间无明显差异。当前劳动力紧缺,人工插秧需要大量劳力,因此亟需开发好氧栽培(如免耕直播和机插)模式下的适宜水稻品种及其相关配套农业机械及技术。     

水稻机插秧“插喷同步”封闭除草技术及配套除草剂防效对比

采用机插秧“插喷同步”技术,于2019年开展大田试验,分别施用4种除草剂（33%嗪吡嘧磺隆、19%氟酮磺草胺、25%双环磺草酮、300 g/L丙草胺+10%苄嘧磺隆）进行除草,对比各除草剂处理对水稻的安全性及对稻田杂草的防治效果。结果表明,药后水稻均未发生可见药害,参试除草剂安全性好;药后35 d供试除草剂对试验田总草防效达95.0%以上;与施用除草剂处理相比,未施药对照水稻产量损失严重,减幅12.5%~42.7%。可见,“插喷同步”技术是一种高效除草技术,供试4种除草剂均能有效防治杂草,降低除草成本,提高种稻效益。     

The use of minimum tillage plus herbicides in potato production

There has been a marked increase in the use of herbicides in potato production. In many cases growers have simply added herbicides to their existing weed control program with little or no reduction in tillage. On Long Island six or more separate mechanical operations may be used by growers to control weeds. The current paper summarizes 3 years’ results with various tillage — herbicide combinations carried out under widely varying levels of weed infestation. Under conditions of low to moderate infestation good results were obtained with one to two tillage passes plus the use of an herbicide. The use of an incorporated herbicide such as EPTC plus a single hilling operation as early as ground-brack was satisfactory. Greening of tubers was not appreciably increased by this or other early hilling practices. Fields with severe weed infestations required two to three tillage treatments plus an herbicide application. No yield reduction occurred from these treatments, with some indication of a trend in the opposite direction.     

Management of complex weed flora in dry-seeded rice

Dry-seeded rice has been introduced as an alternative to puddled hand-transplanted rice in the north Indian states of Punjab and Haryana. In dry-seeded rice, weed flora tends to be more diverse and weeds emerge in several flushes during the crop growth cycle and substantial yield reductions due to weed competition are quite common. The efficacy and compatibility of tank mixtures of different herbicides for the control of diverse weed flora in dry-seeded rice was evaluated in field experiments during the summer seasons of 2012 and 2013. The tank mixture of fenoxaprop with ethoxysulfuron improved the control of Echinochloa crus-galli and Echinochloa colona by 43–69% as compared to fenoxaprop alone while the tank-mix of azimsulfuron with fenoxaprop was antagonistic and reduced the control of Leptochloa chinensis by 86% as compared to fenoxaprop alone. Addition of azimsulfuron or ethoxysulfuron to bispyribac did not improve the control of grass weeds as compared to bispyribac alone. Weed control with the mixture of bispyribac and fenoxaprop varied over the two years. In 2012, bispyribac and fenoxaprop mixture was antagonistic for the control of Dactyloctenum aegyptium, Acrachne racemose, and L. chinensis but in 2013, there was no apparent antagonism and the addition of bispyribac to fenoxaprop reduced grass weed biomass as compared to fenoxaprop alone. In 2013, there was a strong negative correlation (r = −0.95, P < 0.001) between weed dry matter at 45 days after sowing and rice grain yield. According to the linear regression, rice crop is likely to produce no grain yield when weed dry matter exceeds 400 g m⁻². Over the two seasons, fenoxaprop-ethoxysulfuron tank-mix produced similar grain yields (5.6–6.2 t ha⁻¹) to the weed-free check (5.6–7.1 t ha⁻¹). At the farmer fields, rice grain yield in the plots treated with pendimethalin followed by post-emergence bispyribac or a tank-mix of fenoxaprop + ethoxysulfuron ranged from 6.2 to 7.7 t ha⁻¹ as compared to 5.3–5.6 t ha⁻¹ in the plots treated with pendimethalin alone. The tank mixture of fenoxaprop with bispyribac needs further evaluation as this mixture has the potential to effectively control aerobic and aquatic grasses in dry-seeded rice. Single hand weeding prevented crop yield loss from weeds that escaped herbicide treatments only when it was performed within six weeks of sowing.     

Effects of crop establishment techniques on weeds and rice yield

Field and pot studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of seven rice establishment techniques {puddling transplanting (PT), no tillage transplanting (NTT), puddling drum wet seeding (PDWS), no tillage drum wet seeding (NTDWS), conventional tillage dry drilling (CTDD), furrow irrigated raised beds system dry drilling (FIRBSDD), and no-tillage dry-drilling (NTDD)} and water submergence stress on weeds and rice yield. The highest yield and least weed abundance were in the PT treatment. The direct seeded rice (DSR), both dry and wet exhibited severe weed infestation, and compared to transplanting showed reduced yield both in the presence and absence of weeds. The yield losses due to weeds in the DSR treatments ranged from 91.4 to 99.0%, compared to 16.0 and 42.0% in the transplanting treatments (PT and NTT). Weeds, including Cyperus rotundus L., Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd., Digera arvensis Forsk., Phyllanthus niruri L., and Trianthema portulacastrum L. which were found in the un-puddled DSR treatments were absent in the puddled plots, particularly the PT treatments. In pot studies, continuous water-submergence (2.5 cm) for 20 days reduced the emergence of C. rotundus, D. aegyptium, T. portulacastrum, and Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) Beauv. by 99.4, 100, 100, and 24.4%, respectively, compared to alternate wetting–drying. In farmer's field studies, when compared to the PT treatments, the DSR treatments exhibited lower yields (15.8%) with coarse varieties (HKR-47 & IR-64), but fine cultivars (Sharbati & PB-1) exhibited similar yields under both systems. In view of the shortage of labour for manual transplanting, there is a need to develop suitable cultivars for aerobic system conditions (unpuddled DSR and NT machine-transplanting).     

Weed control in conservation agriculture systems of Zimbabwe: Identifying economical best strategies

Weed management under conservation agriculture (CA), especially when manually controlled is one of the major setbacks for the widespread adoption of CA in southern Africa. This study was conducted at three on-station and three on-farm sites: CIMMYT-Harare, Domboshawa Training Centre and Henderson Research Station (on-station sites), Hereford farm, Madziva communal area and Shamva communal area (on-farm sites). The evaluation focused on the effect of initial herbicide application and succeeding manual weeding whenever weeds were 10 cm tall or 10 cm in length for grasses with stoloniferous–rhizomatous growth habit. Weeds counts, weeding time and grain yields were collected at all on-station sites. At the on-farm sites, weed counts were done before weeding and a number of farmers were timed during weeding. The results showed that herbicides use reduced the weed density and time taken on weeding at all sites. Combining herbicides e.g. atrazine, glyphosate and metalachlor had the lowest weed density and weeding time at all sites. However, the treatments had no effect on maize grain yields suggesting that appropriate and timely manual weeding reduced crop/weed competition. Herbicides treatments had higher input costs than manual weeding due to the additional cost of herbicide but the treatment with manual weeding only had more overall labour days compared to the mixture of three herbicides. In order to achieve economic benefits, smallholder farmers may use the time for value addition e.g. expand cropped land area, use time for value addition, or sell new products on the market. Herbicides use reduces the manual labour needed to control weeds and minimise total crop failure due to untimely weeding hence, herbicides are an important but not the only weed control option under CA systems in Zimbabwe.     

The impact of tillage system and herbicides on weed density,diversity and yield of cotton (Gossipium hirsutum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) under the smallholder sector

The study was carried out to evaluate the impact of tillage system in combination with different herbicides on weed density, diversity, crop growth and yields on 18 farms in Kadoma, Zimbabwe. Experiments were set up as a split plot design with three replications on each farm. Tillage was the main plot (Conservation Tillage (CT), Conventional Tillage (CONV)) and weeding option (hand weeding, cyanazine, atrazine, glyphosate only and mixture of cyanazine + alachlor and atrazine + alachlor) as the sub-plots. Due to the heterogeneous nature of farmers' resource base, the farms were grouped into three farm types: high (Type 1), medium (Type 2) and poorly resourced farmers (Type 3). The hand hoe weeded treatments had 49 percent higher total weed densities in CT relative to CONV, and was statistically similar to the glyphosate treatment. The mixed pre-emergence herbicides reduced the diversity indices by 69 and 70 percent when compared to the hand hoe weeded treatment under CT in cotton and maize, respectively. The effectiveness of all pre-emergence herbicides were not influenced by tillage but were affected by farmers resource endowments with pronounced effect in Farm Type 1. Maximum plant heights of 85 and 238 cm were recorded for mixed pre-emergence herbicides under CT for cotton and maize, respectively. Minimum plant heights of 75 and 217 cm were recorded for the respective hand hoe weeded treatments. The hand hoe weeded treatments resulted in average cotton lint yield of 1497 and 2018 kg ha⁻¹ for maize. The mixed pre-emergence herbicides treatments gave yields of 2138 and 2356 kg ha⁻¹ of cotton and maize, respectively. The higher weed densities in CT under hand weeded treatments underscored the need for other weeding options. Similarly, a mixture of cyanazine + alachlor in cotton and atrazine + alachlor in maize is recommended for suppressing broad and grass weed populations and enhancing yields in CT systems.     

Economic analysis of chemical weed control in irrigated garlic (Allium sativum L.) in Sudan Savanna Ecology, Nigeria

An economic analysis on the use of herbicide to control weeds in garlic production in 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 dry seasons indicated a considerable reduction in the cost of weed control and labour demand with the application of herbicide. Although the hoe weeding and the herbicide gave comparable bulb yield in 2002/2003 dry season, the net return per hectare was higher with herbicide application in both seasons. Similarly, the value of labour saved through herbicides use was positive throughout and increased significantly in 2003/2004 dry season.     

Pre and postemergence herbicides for weed control in castor crop

Weed management is among the main factors limiting cultivation of castor (Ricinus communis) in extensive fields, particularly when labor is scarce or expensive. This experiment evaluated the efficiency of weed management programs using preemergence (clomazone, pendimethalin, and trifluralin) and a postemergence herbicide (chlorimuron-ethyl) applied at 20 days after emergence in castor plants cv. BRS Energia under rainfed conditions in Apodi, Brazil. No phytotoxicity was observed on the castor plants, and the postemergence herbicide significantly increased castor seed yield to 1466 kg ha⁻¹ complementing the weed control of preemergence herbicides treatments in which seed yield was 1207 kg ha⁻¹. Seed yield on weedy and weed-free treatments was 760 and 1971 kg ha⁻¹, respectively. Weeds were kept under a satisfactory control up to 40 days after emergence. This program resulted in reasonable weed control because the preemergence herbicides controled monocotyledon weeds, while the postemergence herbicide controlled broad leafed species being selective to castor plants.     

Response of weeds and soil microorganisms to imazaquin and pendimethalin in cowpea and soybean

Herbicides applied to combat weeds and increase crop yields may also have undesired effects on beneficial soil microorganisms. Field studies were conducted in 2005 and 2006 in Zaria, Nigeria, to evaluate the response of weeds and soil microorganisms to imazaquin applied at 0.05, 0.10, 0.20 and 0.40 kg a.i./ha and pendimethalin applied at 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 8.0 kg a.i./ha in cowpea and soybean. Hoe-weeded and unweeded (no herbicide) plots were controls. Both herbicides significantly reduced weed biomass in both crops, when compared to the unweeded control, which had the highest weed biomass at all sampling dates. Treatments with 0.40 kg a.i./ha of imazaquin, 2.0 and 4.0 kg a.i./ha of pendimethalin, and the hoe-weeded control, had the highest cowpea grain yield. The unweeded control had the lowest grain yield which was comparable to that in all other herbicide treatments. All treatments except 4.0 and 8.0 kg a.i./ha of pendimethalin had higher soybean grain yield than the unweeded control. Soybean yield was lowest in the unweeded control, and treatments that received 4.0 and 8.0 kg a.i./ha of pendimethalin. All rates of imazaquin gave similar soybean grain yields that were 29–41% higher than that from pendimethalin. The hoe-weeded control had the highest yield, which was 79% more than that in the unweeded control. Higher rates of imazaquin and pendimethalin reduced nodulation, nitrogen fixation, and vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi colonisation in both crops. VAM fungi species diversity and species richness in cowpea rhizosphere soil and species diversity in soybean rhizosphere soil were reduced relative to the controls due to application of both herbicides with the rates of 0.10, 0.20, and 0.40 kg a.i./ha of imazaquin and 8.0 kg a.i./ha of pendimethalin being significantly effective.     

Suppressing weeds in direct-seeded lowland rainfed rice: Effect of cutting dates and timing of fertilizer application

Weeds cause substantive yield losses in rainfed rice, particularly direct-seeded rice (DSR). Two field experiments were conducted in 2005 in north-east Thailand to examine the effects of cutting date and timing of fertilizer application on suppressed weed, growth and yield of DSR. Treatments consisted of two fertilizer applications to the main plots (top-dressing at the date of cutting and 15 days after cutting; DAC) and four cutting dates of the sub-plots. Rice and weed cutting was performed at 30, 45, 60 and 75 days after seeding (DAS), compared with an untreated control. Cutting resulted in a higher growth rate and improved grain yield of rice compared to the untreated control. Weed cutting at 60 DAS resulted in the greatest leaf area index, which contributed to the maximum number of tiller as well as maximum plant dry mass when observed at 30 DAC. Lower densities and dry weights of weeds at 30 DAC were observed when cutting was done 60 DAS, resulting in a higher grain yield than the other cutting dates. Timing of fertilizer application had no significant effect on the density and dry weight of grasses and broad-leaved weeds, but did have a significant affected on, resulting in the lowest density of sedges at 45 DAC was observed with fertilizer applied at cutting date. Rice grain yield was higher with top-dressing of fertilizer at 15 DAC than with fertilizer applied at cutting date. The cutting treatments resulted in higher net incomes than the untreated control. These results indicate that rice and weed cutting at an appropriate growth stage is an alternative method to chemical weed control for DSR in rainfed riceland.     

Integration of soil-applied herbicides at the reduced rates with physical control for weed management in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.)

Fennel has been widely used in traditional medicine for their antimicrobial effects. Since fennel is long duration crop and have slow initial growth, it protection from weed is essential. Experiments were conducted for two consecutive seasons to evaluate the efficacy of soil-applied herbicides at the reduced rates in combination with physical control for weed management and optimizing the yield of fennel. Treatments were type of herbicide (trifluralin and pendimethalin), application dose (recommend dose (R), 75% R, 50% R, and 0% R) and physical weed control (none, one hand-weeding at 50 day after planting (DAP), wheat straw mulch). Weed-free control treatment was also included in each year. The results showed that the use of soil-applied herbicides resulted in reduced weed biomass but did not provide season long weed control without an additional physical control. In both seasons, pendimethalin provided better weeds control than trifluralin. Reduced herbicide rates were found to be more effective when herbicides application followed by hand-weeding than when were used alone or combined with mulch. Experimental results also showed that one time increasing in herbicide rates increased seed yield by 17.5 and 7.5% in 2012 and 16.5 and 6.3% in 2013, when one hand-weeding and mulching were used as supplemental control, respectively. Overall, the 75% of the labeled recommended rate of herbicides followed by one hand-weeding at 50 DAP produced consistently high yields and less weed biomass, reflecting both superior weed control and crop safety.     

Evaluation of some weed control treatments for long season weed control in maize (Zea mays L.) under zero and minimum tillage at Samaru, in Nigeria

The effect of weed control treatments for long season control of weeds in maize under zero and minimum tillage was evaluated at Samara in northern Nigeria. Among the weed control treatments evaluated, soil ridging plus application of either 2,4-D or atrazine at 1.5 kg a.i/ha performed well as they effectively controlled weeds and resulted in better growth and a grain yield that was comparable to the hand weed control. Maize production under minimum tillage was better than under zero tillage.     

大麻高效除草（封闭）技术研究

本文利用不同除草剂进行播后苗前（封闭）处理,对大麻生产期田间杂草综合防治效果进行了研究。研究结果表明：采用65％异丙甲草胺乳油3L／hm2封闭除草,对禾本科杂草防效可达55．6％。对阔叶杂草龙葵、藜、蓼、苋的防治效果分别达到66．7％、37．5％、88．9％、89．5％,对阔叶杂草蓼、苋防治效果比较理想：采用40％施田扑乳油3L／hm2封闭除草,对禾本科杂草防效可达63．9％,对阔叶杂草龙葵、藜、蓼、苋的防治效果分别达到75．0％、75．0％、66．7％、57．9％,阅叶杂草龙葵、藜比较理想。两种除草剂对禾本科杂草均较好的抑制生长效果。     

Bioherbicides: Dead in the water? A review of the existing products for integrated weed management

The intensive use of synthetic herbicides is questioned for many reasons. Bioherbicides, as integrated weed management tools, however, have the potential to offer a number of benefits such as increased target specificity and rapid degradation. Despite the efforts to identify effective bioherbicide agents in laboratory and field, only thirteen bioherbicides are currently available on the market. Since 1980, the number of biopesticides has increased around the world, while the market share of bioherbicides represents less than 10% of all biopesticides. Nevertheless, weed management implemented at the cropping systems scale needs bioherbicides because of legislation to drive weed management away from heavy reliance on chemicals, the global increase in organic agriculture, the need of both organic and conventional agriculture to increase weed control efficiency, concerns about herbicide resistance, and concern from the public about environmental safety of herbicides. Consequently, we review here the existing products on the market and describe their history, mode of action, efficacy and target weeds. This review is unique because we also discuss the role of bioherbicides in integrated weed management: to manage soil weed seedbanks with seed-targeted agents in addition to primary tillage, to increase the efficacy of mechanical weeding because bioherbicides are more effective on seedlings, to increase the suppression effect of crop cultivars by first slowing weed growth, to terminate cover crops particularly in conservation agriculture, and finally to manage herbicide resistant populations.     

Chemical weed control in direct-seeded irrigated rice in the Lake Chad Basin,Nigeria

Two field experiments were conducted at Ngala in the Lake Chad Basin during the 1981 and 1982 wet seasons to investigate chemical weed control in direct-seeded, irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.). Pre-plant-incorporated, pre- and post-emergence herbicides and their mixtures were tested in replicated, completely randomized block trials. Rice variety IR 28 was drilled each season at 125 kg/ha and fertilized with N (150 kg/ha) and P₂O₅ (40 kg/ha). In both seasons, the post-emergence herbicides propanil + oxadiazon at 3·0 + 1·0 kg a.i./ha, propanil+fluorodifen at 1·4 + 1·8 kg a.i./ha, propanil + bentazone at 3·6 + 1·5 kg a.i./ha and propanil at 3·6 kg a.i./ha as well as thiobencarb applied pre-emergence at 5·0 kg a.i./ha controlled the weeds effectively and gave similar grain yields to that from hand-weeding twice, and significantly higher grain yield than the unweeded control treatments. Grain yields similar to those from the ‘two hand-weeding control’ were achieved also by use of the herbicide dymrone at 3·0 kg a.i./ha, either soil-incorporated pre-sowing or sprayed before weed emergence. The herbicides gave satisfactory control of the weeds, which were predominantly the broad-leaved weed Luffa echinata Roxb., together with the grasses Sorghum aethiopicum (Hack.) Rupr. ex Stapf., Echinochloa colona (L.) Link, Eleusine indica (L) Gaertn, Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop., Oryza longistaminata (Chev. & Roehr.), and sedges Cyperus rotundus L. and Cyperus esculentus L. The studies indicate that effective weed control by these herbicides and herbicide mixtures are dependable alternatives to hand weeding for direct-seeded, irrigated rice cultivation in the Chad Basin area.