Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp3 (2026): Climate-Weed Nexus: Innovations for Sustainable Farming (CWIS 2025)

Integrated sustainable weed management strategies for yield enhancement in organic finger millet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.13469
Submitted
31 December 2025
Published
30-04-2026

Abstract

Effective weed management is crucial for improving yield in organic finger millet. To evaluate the effects of stale seedbed (SSB) and live mulching on weed control and crop performance, field experiments were conducted at model organic farm at College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the rabi and summer seasons of 2022–2023 under organic farming. The study followed a randomised block design with two factors: Three seedbed preparations-normal seedbed (NSB), SSB with light raking and SSB with flaming and  four live mulch treatments: no mulch, cowpea, green gram and cluster bean. Live mulch crops were sown in the inter-row spaces of finger millet in 1:1 ratio. They were later uprooted at 50 % flowering of the live mulches to serve as in situ mulch. Stale seedbed with light raking combined with cowpea live mulch recorded the lowest total weed density (156.0 and 97.3 no. m-2). The lowest weed dry weight was recorded in the treatment involving SSB with light raking combined with green gram live mulch during the rabi season (13.5 g m-2). However, during the summer season, SSB with light raking combined with green gram and cowpea live mulch recorded the lowest weed dry weight (12.7 g m-2). These treatments also achieved the highest weed control efficiency (WCE) during the rabi and summer seasons, recording values of 89.6 and 88.8 %, respectively. Improved weed suppression translated into better yield attributes and higher grain yields of 938 kg ha-1 in rabi and 832 kg ha-1 in summer 2022–2023. Economic analysis showed that this combination produced the highest gross and net returns and the highest benefit-cost (B:C) ratio, indicating its profitability under organic conditions compared to other treatments. Overall, the study concludes that SSB with light raking followed by cowpea live mulching is an effective, sustainable and cost-efficient weed management strategy for enhancing the productivity of organic finger millet.

References

  1. 1. Kaur S, Kumari A, Seem K, Kaur G, Kumar D, Verma S, et al. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.): from staple to superfood-a comprehensive review on nutritional, bioactive, industrial and climate resilience potential. Planta. 2024;260(3):75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-024-04502-2
  2. 2. Udeh HO, Duodu KG, Jideani AIO. Finger millet bioactive compounds, bioaccessibility and potential health effects: a review. Czech J Food Sci. 2017;35(1):7–17. https://doi.org/10.17221/206/2016-CJFS
  3. 3. Government of India, Directorate of Economics and Statistics. Fourth advance estimates of production of foodgrains for 2021–22 [Internet]. New Delhi: Government of India; 2022.
  4. 4. Farm Information Bureau. Farm guide 2024 [Internet]. Thiruvananthapuram: Agriculture Development and Farmers Welfare Department; 2024.
  5. 5. Yathisha KP, Yogananda SB, Thimmegowda P, Sanjay MT, Prakash SS. Growth and yield of direct seeded finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) as influenced by weed management practices. J Crop Weed. 2020;16(3):67–72. https://doi.org/10.22271/09746315.2020.v16.i3.1367
  6. 6. Hegde BR, Vishwanath AP, Reddy MN, Satyanarayana T, Havanagi GV. Crop-weed competition in dryland ragi (Eleusine coracana Gaertn.). Mysore J Agric Sci. 1983;17:315–9.
  7. 7. Giri S, Das NK, Kundu AK. Weed management in millets. In: Millets: the miracle grains of 21st century. Pune: KD Publications; 2024. p. 62–72.
  8. 8. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Finger millet best practices [Internet]. Rome: FAO; 2019.
  9. 9. Gamage A, Gangahagedara R, Gamage J, Jayasinghe N, Kodikara N, Suraweera P, et al. Role of organic farming for achieving sustainability in agriculture. Farming Syst. 2023;1(1):100005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.farsys.2023.100005
  10. 10. Bhaskar V, Westbrook AS, Bellinder RR, DiTommaso A. Integrated management of living mulches for weed control: a review. Weed Technol. 2021;35(5):856–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/wet.2021.52
  11. 11. Mohammadi GR. Living mulch as a tool to control weeds in agroecosystems: A review. In: Price AJ, editor. Weed control. Rijeka (Croatia): IntechOpen; 2012. p. 75–100. https://doi.org/10.5772/35226
  12. 12. Kerala Agricultural University. Package of practices recommendations (organic): crops. Thrissur: Kerala Agricultural University; 2017. p. 328.
  13. 13. Philips EA. Methods of vegetation study: ecology work book. New York: Henry Holt and Company; 1959. p. 144.
  14. 14. Gill GS, Vijayakumar GS. Weed index: a new method for reporting weed control trials. Indian J Agron. 1969;14:96–8.
  15. 15. Mani VS, Gautham KG. Chemical weed control-effective and economical. Indian Farming. 1973;22:191–2.
  16. 16. Gopinath PP, Parsad R, Joseph B, Adarsh VS. GRAPES: General R Shiny based analysis platform empowered by statistics. J Open Source Softw. 2021;6(63):3437. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03437
  17. 17. Patil B, Reddy V. Weed management practices in irrigated organic finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.). Scholars J Agric Vet Sci. 2014;1(4A):211–5.
  18. 18. Stepanovic S, Datta A, Neilson B, Bruening C, Shapiro CA, Gogos G, et al. Effectiveness of flame weeding and cultivation for weed control in organic maize. Biol Agric Hortic. 2016;32(1):47–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/01448765.2015.1028443
  19. 19. Venkatakrishnan AS. Weed management in summer sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) [PhD thesis]. Coimbatore: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University; 1997.
  20. 20. Unnikrishnan D. Management and utilization of chocolate weed (Melochia corchorifolia L.) in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) [PhD thesis]. Vellayani: Kerala Agricultural University; 2023. p. 255.
  21. 21. Petit S, Cordeau S, Chauvel B, Bohan D, Guillemin JP, Steinberg C. Biodiversity-based options for arable weed management: a review. Agron Sustain Dev. 2018;38:48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-018-0525-3
  22. 22. Nalayini P, Blaise D, Mundafale HR. Stale seedbed technique and leguminous cover crops as components of integrated weed management in irrigated cotton. Indian J Weed Sci. 2023;55(1):46–9. https://doi.org/10.5958/0974-8164.2023.00008.4
  23. 23. Jamshidi K, Yousefi AR, Oveisi M. Effect of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) intercropping on weed biomass and maize (Zea mays) yield. N Z J Crop Hortic Sci. 2013;41(4):180–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/01140671.2013.807853
  24. 24. Kaur R, Raj R, Das TK, Shekhawat K, Singh R, Choudhary AK. Weed management in pigeon pea-based cropping systems. Indian J Weed Sci. 2015;47(3):267–76.
  25. 25. Riemens MM, Van der Weide RY, Bleeker PO, Lotz LAP. Effect of stale seedbed preparations and subsequent weed control in lettuce (cv. Iceboll) on weed densities. Weed Res. 2007;47(2):149–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3180.2007.00554.x
  26. 26. Ravikiran, Syriac EK, Raj SK. Integrated weed management in upland rice intercropped in coconut. J Trop Agric. 2019;57(1):71–7.
  27. 27. Chacko S, Raj SK, Jacob D, Pillai SP, Radhakrishnan NV. Non-chemical weed management to improve fruit yield and net income in ladies’ finger. Indian J Weed Sci. 2021;53(3):313–7. https://doi.org/10.5958/0974-8164.2021.00059.9
  28. 28. Ezung NK, Choudhary JK, Das JC, Kikon N, Kuotsu R. Weed growth and nutrient uptake in organically managed rice and maize as affected by nitrogen management and live mulching with cowpea. Indian J Agric Res. 2018;52(6):631–6.
  29. 29. Kumari P, Saini JP. Effect of weed management practices on weeds and yield of wheat under organic conditions of north-west Himalayas. Int J Chem Stud. 2019;7(5):3241–5.
  30. 30. Rasmussen J, Ascard J. Weed control in organic farming systems. In: Glen DM, Greaves MP anderson HM, editors. Ecology and integrated farming systems: Proceedings of the 13th Long Ashton International Symposium. Chichester: Wiley; 1995. p. 49–67.
  31. 31. Jain KK, Tiwari JP. Effect of herbicides and tillage operations on weeds, yield attributes and yield of soybean. Indian J Weed Sci. 1995;27(1–2):32–5.
  32. 32. Yadav SK, Singh DK, Manisha R. Studies on nutrient uptake as influenced by different weed management practices and brown manuring at varying nitrogen levels in direct seeded aerobic rice. Int J Basic Appl Res. 2014;12(2):178–83.
  33. 33. Sindhu PV, Thomas CG, Abraham CT. Seedbed manipulations for weed management in wet-seeded rice. Indian J Weed Sci. 2010;42(3–4):173–9.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.