The impact of different weed management strategies on weed flora of wheat-based cropping systems

Abstract

The world population will rise in future, which would demand more wheat production to fulfil dietary needs of wheat-dependent population of the world. Food security in wheat-dependent regions will greatly rely on wheat productivity. Weed infestation is a major constraint reducing wheat productivity globally. Nonetheless, cropping systems and weed management strategies strongly influence weed infestation in modern agriculture. Herbicides are the key weed management tool in conventional agriculture. However, frequent use of herbicides have resulted in the evolution of herbicide-resistance weeds, which made weed management a challenging task. Sustainable and eco-friendly weed management strategies shift weed-crop competition in the favour of crop plants. Limited studies have evaluated the interactive effect of cropping systems and weed management strategies on weed flora of wheat-based cropping systems (WBCSs). This two-year study evaluated the impact of different weed management strategies (WMSs) on weed flora of WBCSs, i.e., fallow-wheat (FW), rice-wheat (RW), cotton-wheat (CW), mungbean-wheat (MW) and sorghum-wheat (SW). The WMSs included in the study were, false seedbed, allelopathic water extracts and herbicide application, while weed-free and weedy-check were maintained as control treatments. Data relating to diversity and density of individual and total broadleaved and narrow-leaved weeds were recorded. The WBCSs, WMSs and their interaction significantly altered diversity and density of individual, total, broadleaved and narrow-leaved weeds. Weed-free and weedy-check treatments recorded the lowest and the highest values of diversity and density of individual, total, broadleaved and narrow-leaved weeds. Herbicide application effectively reduced density and diversity of weeds. Allelopathic water extracts and false seedbed proved less effective than herbicides. On the other hand, SW cropping system not only reduced weed density but also limited the weed flora. It is concluded that false seedbed and SW cropping system can be efficiently used to manage weeds in WBCSs. However, long-term studies are needed to infer the impact of SW cropping system and false seedbed on soil properties, soil microbes and productivity of wheat crop.

Herbicide Resistance to Metsulfuron-Methyl in Rumex dentatus L. in North-West India and Its Management Perspectives for Sustainable Wheat Production

“…Continuous cultivation of a single crop under similar cultural practices creates specific selection pressure that allows specific weeds species to become dominant due to resource availability and acquisition, and their niche [64]. Higher infestations (no./m 2 ) of the broadleaved dock (Figure 4) were found in rice-wheat (112), fb fallow-wheat (95), and fb moongbean-wheat (74), while the lowest were found in in sorghum-wheat (34) indicating more significant proliferation of dock in irrigated/saturated conditions [65]. The reduction in its population (Figure 4) under sorghum-wheat could be due to allelopathic effect of sorghum and varying patterns of resource competition [65,66].…”

“…Cultural practices include competitive cultivars, sowing, seed rate, row spacing, the stale bed method, band application of fertilizers, uprooting weeds before seed set, crop diversification, and retention of previous crop residue on the soil as mulch to prevent the emergence of R. dentatus [17,65]. ZT with crop residues could enhance weed seed predation and seed decay because (1) a more significant proportion of weed seeds remains on the soil surface where they are more prone to seed predation (2) residues provide a desirable habitat for seed predators and decay agents (3) improved soil characteristics under ZT could facilitate more density of seed predators and decay agents [72].…”

The Impact of Different Weed Management Systems on Weed Flora and Dry Biomass Production of Barley Grown under Various Barley-Based Cropping Systems

“…Therefore, weeds must be controlled to reduce weed seed bank in soil and crop yield losses [ 17 , 18 ]. Several weed management methods, i.e., cultural, chemical, mechanical, and biological are opted to suppress the growth of weed flora [ 19 , 20 ]. Labor unavailability and high wages along with unreliable weed control are the main issues faced in manual/cultural weed control [ 21 ].…”

“…Mechanical weed control, on the other hand, is expensive because of sophisticated equipment required for each crop [ 22 ], and involves extra soil disturbance resulting in the disruption of soil structure and reduced soil fertility [ 23 ]. Similarly, frequent use of herbicide in chemical weed control results in the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds, environmental contamination, and health hazards [ 20 , 24 ].…”

The Impact of Different Crop Rotations by Weed Management Strategies’ Interactions on Weed Infestation and Productivity of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

“…MacLaren et al [48] investigated the interactive impact of crop rotation and tillage systems on weed infestation in wheat and reported that crop rotation with reduced tillage lowered weed infestation, whereas crop interaction by zero tillage interaction was unable to reduce weed density. Shahzad et al [49] recently reported that false seed bed and sorghum-wheat rotation decreased weed density in wheat crop and recommended long term studies for inferring the impacts of both on wheat-based cropping systems.…”