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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp5 (2026): Recent Advances in Agriculture

Effect of eco-friendly weed management practices on growth, growth indices and grain yield of organic rice under system of rice intensification (SRI)

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.13627
Submitted
11 January 2026
Published
21-09-2026

Abstract

Rice is the staple food for half of the world’s population. The environmental challenges posed by the conventional rice cultivation can be mitigated by System of rice intensification (SRI), climate smart agro-ecological production system. However, heavy weed infestation is the major impediment in SRI. Increasing labour scarcity and low-efficiency of weeder operation necessitated to find out the alternate weed management practices. Mulching serves as the viable alternate eco-friendly weed management practice. Hence, a field experiment was conducted in the sandy clay loam soil of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Karaikal during the Rabi season of 2023 - 2024 to evaluate the effect of eco-friendly weed management practices on growth, growth indices and grain yield of organic rice under SRI cultivation. Weed management practices such as mulching with eucalyptus leaves, bamboo leaves, teak leaves, calotropis leaves, sorghum stover, rice straw and rice bran fb rotary weeding, azolla dual cropping fb rotary weeding were compared with rotary weeding thrice (Farmers’ practice), weed free and weedy check. Application of mulches at 2 t ha-1 and azolla at 250 kg ha-1 was done on 3rd day after transplanting (DAT) and incorporated using rotary weeder on 35 DAT. The results of the present investigation revealed that rice bran mulch at 2 t ha-1 on 3 DAT fb rotary weeding on 35 DAT significantly improved the growth attributes and growth indices leading to more grain yield of organic rice under SRI cultivation.

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