Herbicide Combinations for Effective Weed Management in Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important food crop catering half of the world’s population. India being the second largest producer of rice, needs to produce around 120 million tons of rice by 2030 to feed its one and a half billion plus population. Weeds are undoubtedly a major biotic constraint to rice production in most of the rice growing areas of the world. Rice fields are very often characterized by a complex plurispecific weed flora, comprising of grasses, sedges, and broad-leaved weeds (BLWs). They usually grow faster than rice and absorb available water and nutrient earlier than the rice and suppress rice growth. Cultural and mechanical methods of weed management in general, are time consuming, cumbersome and laborious apart from being less effective because of chance of escape and regeneration of weeds from roots or rhizome that are left behind. Herbicides offer the most effective, economical and practical way of weed management. Since rice ecosystems usually harbours a variety of weeds, the use of a single herbicide cannot give satisfactory results. Moreover, continous use of such herbicides leads to the evolution of weeds resistant to several herbicides. Therefore, more convenient option would be single shot application of ready mix or tank mix combination of herbicide. The herbicide mixtures broaden the spectrum of weed control in single application. The ideal herbicide combinations are those that effectively target the weed species while minimizing toxicity to crops, thereby exhibiting enhanced selectivity. Using herbicide combinations allows for reduced herbicide use rates compared to using a single herbicide. Additionally, apart from providing broad-spectrum weed control, herbicide combinations reduce the herbicide load in the environment and minimize application costs. Among the various combination herbicides available, the ones having pre-emergence and post-emergence herbicides combined had shown better weed control with single shot application at reduced cost. Some of the ready-mix herbicide combinations that are gaining greater importance includes Pretilachlor + Pyrazosulfuron-ethyl, Pendimethalin + Penoxsulam and Butachlor + Penoxsulam.