Impact of labour saving techniques on soil moisture content, weed dynamics and pink bollworm incidence in Bt cotton

The king of fibres, cotton cultivation is becoming labour intensive as it needs manual labours for land preparation, weeding, interculture, crop protection and picking in large numbers. Labour availability is becoming major hurdle in cotton management. Hence an attempt was made to evaluate options to reduce labour requirement by using machines and agronomic means. Experiment was conducted at Cotton Research Station, Nanded (M.S.) during 2017-18 to 2019-20 in Kharif season under rainfed condition. Field trial was consisting of eight treatments and three replications.The results showed reduction in labour requirement due to sowing on broad bed and furrow (BBF) made by tractor + weedicide application + cycle how + spraying by HTP sprayer. The count of monocot as well as dicot weeds and weed dry weight at 30 DAS was significantly reduced in treatments having pre-emergence application of weedicide (Pendimethalin 30% EC). Soil moisture content from 30 days to at harvest (five stages) was found to be improved drastically in polymulch applied treatment. Significantly higher seed cotton yield (2546 kg ha-1) was registered in treatment BBF by machine + poly mulch. Cotton seed germination was hastened due to polymulch. The share of first picking was greater (75.19 per cent) in polymulch applied treatment whereas pink bollworm incidence was lower. Polymulch treatment recorded highest harvest index.