Effect of weed management practices on growth dynamics and productivity of rainfed pearl millet under conservation agriculture

An experiment was conducted on rainfed pearl millet at ICAR- IARI, New Delhi, during the kharif season of 2019, in a split-plot design with three replications. Three tillage practices, viz. Conventional tillage (CT), Zero tillage and Zero tillage + Residue@ 3t/ha (ZT+R) were evaluated in the main plot and seven weed management treatments, viz. weedy check, hand weeding (HW) at 30 and 50 days after sowing (DAS), atrazine @ 0.75 kg/ha(PE) fb 2,4-D @0.75kg/ha (PoE), atrazine @ 0.75 kg/ha PE, atrazine @ 0.75 kg/ha PE fb tembotrione @ 0.05kg/ha PoE, atrazine @ 0.75kg/ha PE fb tembotrione @ 0.075kg/ha PoE, atrazine @0.75 kg/ha PE fb tembotrione @ 0.10 kg/ha PoE. ZT+R 3t/ha resulted in enhanced growth attributes, and higher NPK uptake which led to increased grain yield. Among weed control treatments, hand weeding (HW) twice at 30 and 50 DAS along with the integration of pre-emergence application of atrazine 0.75kg/ha fb 2,4-D 0.75kg/ha PoE and tembotrione, 0.075 kg/ha or 0.1 kg/ha PoE resulted in better growth attributes which significantly resulted in higher grain yield under rainfed conditions of semi-arid tropics.