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

Research Articles

Early Access

Influence of tillage and herbicide strategies on weed dynamics and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) performance in saline soils of Northern India

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.9195
Submitted
29 April 2025
Published
14-08-2025
Versions

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2019-20 at the Agronomy Research Farm, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Ayodhya, to assess the effects of tillage and herbicide combinations on weed dynamics, crop growth and wheat yield under saline soil conditions. The study involved 15 treatment combinations arranged in a splitplot design (SPD) with three replications. The main plots included three tillage operations: T0-zero tillage (ZT), T1-minimum tillage (MT) and T2-conventional tillage (CT). The sub-plots consisted of five weed management treatments: pendimethalin 1.5 kg active ingredient/ha (pre-emergence), pendimethalin 1.0 kg active ingredient/ha (pre-emergence) followed by sulfosulfuron (SFS) at 0.025 kg active ingredient/ha (post-emergence), SFS + metsulfuron-methyl (MSM) at 0.032 kg active ingredient/ha (post-emergence), a weedy check and a weed-free control. The results revealed that ZT significantly reduced weed density and dry weight while enhancing weed
control efficiency (WCE) compared to MT and CT. Among the herbicide treatments, the sequential application of pendimethalin (1.0 kg active ingredient/ha) followed by SFS (0.025 kg active ingredient/ha) was the most effective in suppressing weed growth and improving WCE and enhancing crop growth and yield. This treatment was statistically on par with the SFS + MSM application. The combination of ZT with pendimethalin followed by SFS (T0W2) recorded the lowest weed infestation and the highest values for plant height, dry matter accumulation, tillers per m row length and grain yield. This was closely followed by the ZT combined with SFS +
MSM treatment (T0W3), highlighting the synergistic benefits of conservation tillage and sequential herbicide application.

References

  1. 1. Directorate of Economics and Statistics. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India; 2024.
  2. 2. Singh RP, Verma SK, Kumar S. Weed management for enhancing yield and economics of wheat in the Eastern India. Indian J Agric Sci. 2020;84(6):780–83.
  3. 3. Minhas WA, Mumtaz N, Ur-Rehman H, Farooq S, Farooq M, Ali HM, et al. Weed infestation and productivity of wheat crop sown in various cropping systems under conventional and conservation tillage. Front Plant Sci. 2023;14:1176738. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1176738
  4. 4. Thind HS, Sharma S, Sidhu HS, Singh V. Tillage, crop establishment and residue retention methods for optimising productivity and profitability under rice–wheat system. Crop Pasture Sci. 2023;74(9):828-42. https://doi.org/10.1071/CP21595
  5. 5. Tomar SPS, Tomar SS, Srivastava SC. Yield and yield component response of wheat genotypes to different sowing dates in Gird region of Madhya Pradesh. Int J Farm Sci. 2014;4(2):1–6.
  6. 6. Lakra K, Husain K, Pyare R, Verma SK, Meena RS, Singh PK, et al. Productivity and profitability of irrigated bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) are influenced by Irrigation scheduling and weed management approaches. Gesunde Pflanzen. 2022;75(4):801–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-022-00748-6
  7. 7. Lakra K, Pyare R, Singh PK, Verma SK, Singh RK, Upadhyay PK, et al. Effect of irrigation schedule and herbicides application on growth and productivity of wheat in semi-arid environment. Indian J Agron. 2020;67(2):129–36. https://doi.org/10.59797/ija.v67i2.102
  8. 8. Yadav DK, Verma SK, Singh RK, Bhushan C, Rajpoot SK, Upadhyay A, et al. Effect of crop establishment and weed management practices on soil properties in wheat. Pharma Innov J. 2023;12(6):4607–609.
  9. 9. Alhammad BA, Roy DK, Ranjan S, Padhan SR, Sow S, Nath D, et al. Conservation tillage and weed management influencing weed dynamics, crop performance, soil properties, and profitability in a rice–wheat–greengram system in the eastern Indo-Gangetic plain. Agronomy. 2023;13(7):1953. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13071953
  10. 10. Yadav DK, Verma SK, Pratap V, Yadav SP, Jaysawal PK. Available nutrients in soil are influenced by planting techniques and weed management options in wheat. Int J Chem Stud. 2020;8(4):2718–21. https://doi.org/10.22271/chemi.2020.v8.i4af.10057
  11. 11. Yang M, Zhao Y, Yang H, Shen Y, Zhang X. Suppression of weeds and weed seeds in the soil by stubbles and no-tillage in an arid maize–winter wheat–common vetch rotation on the Loess Plateau of China. J Arid Land. 2018;10:809–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-018-0063-5
  12. 12. Hasanuzzaman M, Islam MO, Bapari MS. Efficacy of different herbicides over manual weeding in controlling weeds in transplanted rice. Aust J Crop Sci. 2008;2(1):18–24.
  13. 13. Gomez KA, Gomez AA. Statistical procedures for agricultural research. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1984.
  14. 14. Yadav DK, Verma SK, Bhushan C, Mahajan NC, Kumar P. Influence of crop establishment methods and weed management practices on growth and yield attributes of wheat. Int J Plant Soil Sci. 2023;35(18):1452–58. https://doi.org/10.9734/ijpss/2023/v35i183412
  15. 15. Shyam R, Rohitashav S, Singh VK, Guru SK. Effect of wheat establishment methods and weed management practices on weed dynamics and productivity of wheat grown in succession to rice. Indian J Weed Sci. 2009;41(1):70–72.
  16. 16. Khaliq A, Shakeel M, Matloob A, Hussain S, Tanveer A, Murtaza G. Influence of tillage and weed control practices on growth and yield of wheat. Philipp J Crop Sci. 2013;38(3):54-62.
  17. 17. Singh RP, Verma SK, Prasad SK, Singh H, Singh SB. Effect of tillage and weed management practices on grassy weeds in wheat. Int J Sci Environ Technol. 2017;6(1):404–12.
  18. 18. Ghazikhanlou Sani Y, Yousefi AR, Jamshidi K, Shekari F, Gonzalez-Andujar JL, Korres NE. Weed response to ALS-inhibitor herbicide (Sulfosulfuron + metsulfuron methyl) under increased temperature and carbon dioxide. Agronomy. 2023;13(8):2084. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13082084
  19. 19. Verma SK, Bhushan C, Rajpoot SK, Chaudhary R, Meena R, Kashyap SK, et al. Herbicide and irrigation management options in conventionally-tilled wheat: Deciphering water and energy budgeting, and grain and monetary output in north-Indian plains. Sci Rep. 2025;15(1):1612. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-81578-6
  20. 20. Ahmad N, Virk AL, Hafeez MB, Ercisli S, Golokhvast KS, Qi Y, et al. Effects of different tillage and residue management systems on soil organic carbon stock and grain yield of rice–wheat double cropping system. Ecol Indic. 2024;158:111452.
  21. 21. Sumitra G, Rajkumara S, Lamani KD. Sequential herbicidal application on weed community and yield of wheat. Indian J Weed Sci. 2024;56(3):243–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.5958/0974-8164.2024.00040.1
  22. 22. Brar AS, Walia US. Weed dynamics and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) productivity as influenced by planting techniques and weed control practices. Indian J Weed Sci. 2009;41(3–4):161–66.
  23. 23. Hussain Z, Hashim S, Jabran K. Integrated effect of tillage and herbicides on wheat crop. Gesunde Pflanzen. 2021;73(2):239–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-021-00549-3
  24. 24. Wang Y, Song J, Li W, Yan T, Wang D, Xue J, et al. Wheat yield, biomass, and radiation interception and utilization under conservation tillage: Greater response to drip fertigation compared to intensive tillage. Agronomy. 2024;14(12):2849. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14122849
  25. 25. Verma SK, Singh RP, Kumar S. Effects of irrigation and herbicides on the growth, yield and yield attributes of wheat. Bangladesh J Bot. 2017;46(3):839–45.
  26. 26. Choudhary PC, Sharma AR. Herbicides in zero-till wheat grown after greengram. Indian J Weed Sci. 2023;55(1):95–98. https://doi.org/10.5958/0974-8164.2023.00016.3
  27. 27. Kushwaha AS, Gupta D, Singh L. Chemical weed management in wheat (Triticum aestivum) using ready-mix and tank-mix herbicides. Indian J Agron. 2018;63(4):462–66.
  28. 28. Rana SS, Badiyala D, Brari P. Evaluation of herbicide combinations for controlling complex weed flora in wheat. Indian J Weed Sci. 2017;49(4):335–40. https://doi.org/10.5958/0974-8164.2017.00088.0
  29. 29. Deshmukh JP, Kakade SU, Goud VV. Tillage and weed management effect on wheat in inceptisols grown under soybean-wheat cropping sequence. Indian J Weed Sci. 2023;55(4):448–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.5958/0974-8164.2023.00081.3
  30. 30. Buczek J. The effect of tillage systems and weed control methods on grain yield and gluten protein compositional and content-related changes in hybrid bread wheat. Agriculture. 2024;14(9):1558. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14091558

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.