evaluation of different techniques for economical control of weeds associated to chickpea. khan, i.a., waqas, m., shah, s.m.a., khan, n., and khan, r. (pakistan)

A field experiment was carried out on farm at Peshawar, Pakistan, during spring 2012 for evaluating the efficacy of weed management strategies to control weeds associated to three chickpea cultivars and their cost benefit ratios. The design of the experiment was randomized complete block with split plot arrangement. Different chickpea cultivars (Karak-I, Sheenghar, and Karak-III) were assigned to main plot while weed control treatments i.e. black plastic mulch, white plastic mulch, saw dust mulch, wheat straw mulch, Stomp 330 EC, Dual Gold 960 EC, hand weeding and untreated control were assigned to subplots. The parameters recorded were the fresh weed biomass (kg/ha), the number of seeds/pod and the cost benefit ratio. The results revealed a relatively divergent response of various treatments and chickpea cultivars for all the studied parameters. The results showed that the lowest fresh weed biomass (655.33 kg/ha) was noticed in hand weeding followed by herbicides (Stomp 330EC and Dual Gold 960EC) while among chickpea cultivars the minimum fresh weed biomass (705.02 kg/ha) was recorded for Karak-III. Black plastic mulch and hand weeding positively affected the chickpea production where the maximum number of seeds/pod was of about 1.67 and 1.61, respectively. The cost benefit ratio results revealed that the highest net return to the farmer as a result of added cost to the crop was obtained by applying Stomp 330 EC (1:2.18) followed by Dual Gold 960 EC (1:1.94) and hand weeding (1:1.91). Hence, the present study recommends the sowing of chickpea cultivar Karak-III with hand weeding practice or herbicide application (Stomp 330 EC or Dual Gold 960 EC) at the recommended rate to obtain maximum weed control and high net income in the agroecological conditions of Peshawar.