Impact of pre and post-emergence herbicide applications on mimicry weed (Echinochloa colona) in rice cultivation for food security and sustainable agriculture

More than half of the worlds’ population relies on rice as their primary food source and India is a major exporter of Basmati rice, known for its fragrant, elongated grains. Echinochloa colona, a mimicry weed in rice fields, poses significant challenges for rice cultivation due to its morphological similarity to rice plants, hindering effective weed management. This experiment, conducted at Lovely Professional Universitys’ agricultural field during the Kharif season of 2024, evaluated various herbicide treatments combined with manual weeding. The treatments were laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. The predominant weed species observed in the experimental farm was Echinochloa colona. Significantly lower weed density at 20, 40 and 60 DAT (1.88,1.72 and 1.37 no. m–2 ) and weed dry weight m–2 (13.99, 3.03 and 0.78 g) were recorded in the weed-free plot, which remained at par with the pre- emergence herbicide butachlor @ 1.5 L/ha combined with hand weeding at 30 DAT. The results showed that the weed-free treatment achieved the maximum plant height (105.68 cm), number of tillers per plant (18.55), maximum chlorophyll index (47.50 SPAD), dry weight (44.51g/plant) and leaf area (74.73 cm2 ), closely followed by the butachlor @ 1.5 L/ha combined with hand weeding at 30 DAT. The weedy check plot recorded the minimal values for these parameters, indicating the detrimental effect of weed competition. The research suggests that combining the pre-emergence treatment of butachlor with hand weeding significantly reduces weed competition, thereby enhancing the growth of transplanted Basmati rice.