Innovative crop establishment strategies vis-à-vis weed management practices can improve nutrient uptake and soil nutrient balance in the rice–green gram cropping system

Finding a suitable crop establishment strategy that sustains rice production vis-à-vis soil health with minimum loss of yield due to weed menace is the need of the hour. A field experiment was conducted during 2016–17 and 2017–18 on the development of an innovative rice establishment method coupled with the best weed management for rice–green gram system. Establishment methods comprised of direct mechanical seeding of rice (DSR), sprouted rice seedling (WSR), rice transplanting in unpuddled soil (NPTR), and rice transplanting in puddled soil (PTR). There was six weed control measures viz. weedy check [W1), bensulfuron methyl 0.6% + pretilachlor 6% (pre emergence(PE)) at 0.660 kgha-1followed by (fb)manual weeding (HW) at 30 days after sowing or transplanting (DAS/T) [W2), W2 herbicidesat0.495kg ha-1fb HW at 30 (DAS/T) [W3), W2 herbicidesat0.495kgha-1fb0.025 kg ha-1 of bispyribac sodium (post emergence (POE)) at during 15 DAS/T [W4), mechanical weeding during 15 DAS/T using cono weeder (CW) fb hand weeding at 30 DAS/T [W5), and brown manuring/ green manuring [W6). The study revealed that the highest nutrient uptake by rice was found under PTR, thereby resulting in the best rice yield. Weed management W2 resulted in better weed management and yield of the crops. The soil NPK balance was found to be best under the brown/green manured plot, while under different establishment methods, the best N-balance was found in DSR. However, this establishment was found to be poor concerning P and K balance in soil.