Vol. 7, Issue 1 (2019)
Weed and water management strategies on the adaptive capacity of rice-wheat system to alleviate weed and moisture stresses in conservation agriculture: A review
Author(s): Vivek, RK Naresh, SK Tomar, Sudhir Kumar, NC Mahajan and Shivani
Abstract: Weeds are the major deterrent to the development of sustainable crop production. Since weeds dictate most of the crop production practices and causes enormous losses (37 per cent) due to their interference. Farmers follow several practices for managing weeds in different crops/cropping systems, of which at present the use of herbicides are on the top due to the scarcity of labours. While globally, agriculture accounts for 80–90% of all freshwater used by humans, and most of that is in crop production. In many areas, this water use is unsustainable; water supplies are also under pressure from other users and are being affected by climate change. Much effort is being made to reduce water use by crops and produce ‘more crop per drop’. There is substantial potential for further improvements owing to the progress in understanding the physiological responses of plants and control weeds to water supply, and there is considerable promise within the modern approaches, if linked to the appropriate environmental physiology. In other words weeds pose a major threat to world agriculture by reducing detrimentally crop yield and quality. However, at the same time, weeds are major interacting components of the agro-ecosystems. Abundance and diversity of weeds vary significantly among the several communities. In order to evaluate each community’s structure and the interactions among them, several population indices are used as key tools. The sustainability of these systems is being questioned because of environmental and economic concerns caused by global competition, production cost, soil degradation, environmental pollution, and concern over the quality of life. In recent years, an increasing number of herbicide resistant weeds and invasive alien plants have become prevalent and challenging to manage in India as elsewhere in the world. At present, 30 weed species have evolved resistance to herbicide that includes 48 commonly used herbicides. Although tactics such as crop rotation and biological control have been used to manage some weeds in India, weed control has and continues to rely primarily on herbicides. Research priorities for weed management include developing and implementing a preventive risk assessment framework and a better understanding of the mechanisms that allow some alien weeds to be highly aggressive and difficult to manage. Moreover, the development and evaluation of additional weed management tactics such as straw mulching, optimizing water management, and site-specific fertilizer and herbicide applications warrant further study. The goal of this review is to facilitate the strategies on the adaptive to alleviate weed and moisture stresses of ecologically based alternative methods for weed management that will support rice-wheat system, which require less tillage, herbicide and other inputs. To accomplish this goal, research efforts must be radically expanded in crop ecology and in the development of ecologically based technologies for weed management. Adoption of conservation agricultural practices reduces the intensity of soil manipulation thereby creates an unfavourable condition for weed seed germination, reduces the organic matter depletion and soil d degradation. Thus, the sustainable approaches could be an option for alleviate weed and moisture stresses which leads to sustainable crop production.
Related Graphics: Click here for more related graphics
![Number of rice’s companion weed species observed in soil samples with different soil depths of different fields with different rice planting systems. DDSR: dry direct-seeded rice, WDSR: Water direct-seeded rice and MTR: machine-transplanted rice [Source: Chen <em>et al</em>., 2017]](https://www.chemijournal.com/up/graphics/4896/19122806170148960.png)
Fig. 1: Number of rice’s companion weed species observed in soil samples with different soil depths of different fields with different rice planting systems. DDSR: dry direct-seeded rice, WDSR: Water direct-seeded rice and MTR: machine-transplanted rice [Source: Chen et al., 2017]
![Number of seeds per m2 soil for different weed groups within different soil depths (1 = 0–5 cm, 2 = 5–10 cm, 3 = 10–15 cm, and 4 = 15–20 cm) [Source: Chen <em>et al</em>., 2017]](https://www.chemijournal.com/up/graphics/4896/19122806170148961.png)
Fig. 2: Number of seeds per m2 soil for different weed groups within different soil depths (1 = 0–5 cm, 2 = 5–10 cm, 3 = 10–15 cm, and 4 = 15–20 cm) [Source: Chen et al., 2017]
![Impacts of six weed control strategies: manual weeding, paraquat plus manual weeding, glyphosate plus manual weeding, atrazine plus manual weeding, atrazine + glyphosate + manual weeding, and atrazine + glyphosate + metolachlor plus manual weeding on weed density (in m<sup>−2</sup>) [Muoni <em>et al</em>., 2014]](https://www.chemijournal.com/up/graphics/4896/19122806170148962.png)
Fig. 3: Impacts of six weed control strategies: manual weeding, paraquat plus manual weeding, glyphosate plus manual weeding, atrazine plus manual weeding, atrazine + glyphosate + manual weeding, and atrazine + glyphosate + metolachlor plus manual weeding on weed density (in m−2) [Muoni et al., 2014]
Pages: 1319-1334 | 404 Views 88 Downloads
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How to cite this article:
Vivek, RK Naresh, SK Tomar, Sudhir Kumar, NC Mahajan, Shivani. Weed and water management strategies on the adaptive capacity of rice-wheat system to alleviate weed and moisture stresses in conservation agriculture: A review. Int J Chem Stud 2019;7(1):1319-1334.
