Efficacy, Energy Budgeting, and Carbon Footprints of Weed Management in Blackgram (Vigna mungo L.)

Weed management in blackgram is one of the most efficient ways to improve its yield, as uncontrolled weed growth causes a significant decrease in crop yield. A field experiment was performed at Berthin, Himachal Pradesh, India, to investigate the efficacy, energy use efficiency (EUE), and carbon footprints of weed management tactics. Twelve weed control treatments were tested applied alone or in combination at pre and post emergence stages. The most prominent weeds were Cyperus iria, Dactyloctenium aegyptium, and Echinochloa colona, which caused a 68.1% loss in unweeded conditions. The application of weed control treatments reduced the weed count at 60 DAS from around 50% to 90%. The most efficient weed control treatment was pre-emergence (PRE) use of ready mix imazethapyr 35% + imazamox 35% WG @ 80 g ha−1, which resulted in a minimum weed infestation (i.e., weed count and weed biomass) and consequently highest yield. Its efficacy in weed control treatment was on par with PRE use of ready mix imazethapyr (35%) + imazamox (35% WG @ 70 g ha−1. Maximum energy use efficiency was also obtained upon PRE use of imazethapyr (35%) + imazamox (35% WG) @ 80 g ha−1 (8.27), trailed by PRE use of imazethapyr + imazamox @ 70 g ha−1 (7.84), mainly because of the higher yield obtained in these treatments which shows their efficiency in energy conversion. The carbon footprints were observed to be the lowest in ready mix combination of imazethapyr (35%) + imazamox (35% WG) applied at 80 g ha−1 (0.11 kg CE kg−1 yield), followed by imazethapyr (35%) + imazamox (35% WG) applied at 70 g ha−1 (0.12 kg CE kg−1 yield), as it resulted in the lowest emission per unit output production.

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Assessment of Energy Budgeting and Its Indicator for Sustainable Nutrient and Weed Management in a Rice-Maize-Green Gram Cropping System

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11010166 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 166

Author(s):

Dibakar Ghosh ◽

Koushik Brahmachari ◽

Anupam Das ◽

Mohamed M. Hassan ◽

Pijush Kanti Mukherjee ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Weed Management ◽

Production System ◽

Energy Use ◽

Nutrient Management ◽

Farmyard Manure ◽

Green Gram ◽

Additional Advantage ◽

Energy Use Efficiency ◽

Neem Cake ◽

Use Efficiency

Sustainability and climate change are the two major challenges to the agricultural production system. The trade-off between them is essential for higher profitability. The energy assessment is essential for judging the sustainability and vulnerability of a production system. Besides, nutrient management and weed management are equally imperative to sustainability. Thus, the present study was executed to assess the energy balance, key energy indicators and profitability of rice–maize–green gram system under different nutrient and weed management practices. Application of Brassicaceous seed meal (BSM) along with mineral fertilizer attributed the highest rice (5.62 t ha−1) and maize (6.48 t ha−1) yield which was 11.6%, 8.3% and 3.7% in maize and 10.0%, 6.2% and 8.7% in rice for the conjoint application with vermicompost, farmyard manure (FYM) and neem cake, respectively. Moreover, BSM recorded the highest net energy gain, energy use efficiency and energy efficiency ratio and the lowest specific energy in all the crops. Application of pre-emergence herbicides followed by hoeing was found to be best in all respects including yield, profitability, energy use efficiency, energy effectiveness, etc. The appropriate combination of integrated nutrient management with BSM and pre-emergence herbicide application followed by hoeing provided an additional advantage not only in terms of yield but also an efficient use of energy, profitability and environmental safety. BSM and neem cake could be the alternative organic manure in the integrated nutrient-cum-weed management module and they could be able to compensate the paucity of FYM and vermicompost in the country.

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