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Integrated weed management in direct-seeded rice under irrigated conditions: A critical review of strategies, performance, and sustainability

International Journal of Agriculture and Food Science · 2026 · Vol. 8(6) · pp. 337–339
Lovejeet SinghBaljinder SinghKanik Kumar Bansal
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Abstract

Direct-seeded rice (DSR) has emerged as a viable alternative to traditional puddle transplanted rice due to its advantages in saving water, labor, and time. But still the major problem of weed infestation is lingering around which is creating hindrance in its fruitfulness. This problem accelerates especially in the situations where the irrigation demands less standing water as this condition is favorable for weed infestation. The Approach of Integrated Weed Management (IWM) to manage weed infestation is becoming increasingly significant in the domain of Agriculture especially for the method of DSR .Because of its climate friendly approach it has gained the importance. This review aims to compile the recent research regarding practice IMW in relation to DSR from different researches and review. The review explores the ways to suppress weed by herbicide dependent strategy. But this comes with its own limitations such as increasing resistance pattern and Environmental Challenges. Traditional methods like crop rotation, stale seedbed and residue mulching have been proven effective in controlling weed growth by changing the competitive interaction between weed and crop. Although Mechanical techniques are effective but are highly manual and time consuming. The hybrid approach which combines mechanical methods with stepwise application of pre and post emergence herbicide method are economic friendly, have better efficiency in weed control, and also results in high yield of grain. The review also focuses on methods specific to location and ecology of weed. Further study may consider focusing more on environmental friendly herbicides, accurate technique to manage weed infestation to make DSR system better.

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Introduction

The primary dish which half of the world eats as a regular mean is Rice (Oryza sativa L). It is also the main crop which comes under food Availability (International Rice Research Institute, 2013). The methods of puddling and transplanting requires high amount of water. To produce 1.0kg of Rice, on average 2500L is needed (Bouman 2009) [2] . This much quantity of water amounts 30-40% of the entire cost of agriculture (Chaudhary and Varshney 2003; Kumar & Ladha 2011; Singh and Kumar 2020) [3,22,38] . In such Case, (DSR) direct seeding rice, seems to be a practical choice for the farmers (Farooq et al. 2011) [12] .This method reduces labor requirement and water usage which leads to cost saving on water upto 30% (Kumar and Ladha, 2011) [22] .Direct seeding is the process of spreading pregerminated/soaked/dry seeds in wet (saturated) puddle/dry soils. Even after being so beneficial, DSR system is vulnerable to weed infestation because of the absence of standing water at the early stage of crop (Chauhan, 2012) [4] .Weed and Rice plant exhibits competitive interaction for the main resources like water, space, nutrient and light which leads to the major lose in the production (Rao et al. 2007) [29] . Rice productivity gets effected upto 15-80%, by unregulated weed expansion. This range may vary in response to environmental conditions and density of the weed (Singh et al., 2006) [35] .In DSR system,the flora of weed is diverse which mean flora in sedges is different than the one finds in grasses and different for broadleaf, which also depends on the climate condition of the agriculture (Rao et al., 2007) [29] . Chemical based weed management which involves herbicides is often taken into consideration because this method is simple and effective to use (Mahajan & Chauhan, 2013) [25] .

Early weed emergence can be controlled by Pre-emergence herbicides such pendimethalin and pretilachlor (Walia et al., 2012) [40] . Bispyribac-sodium are post emergence herbicides which are used for the weed flushing at the later stage (Yadav et al., 2009) [41] .The prolong use of herbicides leads to complications like change in weed flora, degradation of environment, and resistance against herbicides(Chauhan & Johnson 2010) [6,7] . Weed pressure can be reduced by methods like crop rotataion, residual mulching and stale seedbeds. These methods strengthen crop -weed competitive balance (Kumar et al., 2018) [19,20] . Mechanical weeding techniques, such as manual weeding and rotary weeders, are effective yet labor-intensive (Bhurer et al., 2013) [1] . For the weed management (IWM) Integrated Weed Management system has been proposed,which includes mechanical,cultural and chemical methods (Chauhan et al. 2014) [8] . Therefore, it is essential to identify the practice which is most effective for the weed management in DSR system in irrigation, by systematic investigating the IWM method.

Methodology

Across the studies different techniques have been employed to generate the better results. The review gives the comaparative analysis of the methods based on the results that has been generated.

Experimental Framework

• Randomized Block Design (RBD) (Singh et al., 2016) [37]

• Split-plot design (Kumar et al., 2018) [19,20]

Traditional Approaches

• Stale seedbed (Chauhan & Johnson, 2010) [6,7] • Mulching (Jat et al., 2014) [14] • Crop rotation (Ladha et al., 2016) [24] 2.3 Mechanical Approaches • Hand weeding • Cono weeder (Singh et al., 2016) [37]

Herbicide based Strategies

• Pre-emergence: Pendimethalin, Pretilachlor (Rao et al., 2007) [29] • Post-emergence:

Bispyribac-sodium, Fenoxaprop (Mahajan et al., 2012) [26] • Sequential applications (Kaur & Singh, 2015) [16]

Review of Literature 3.1 Cultural Weed Management Practices

Cultural practices play a significant role in reducing weed pressure in DSR systems. The stale seedbed technique involves pre-irrigation to encourage weed germination followed by their elimination before sowing (Kumar et al., 2018) [19,20] . Residue mulching suppresses weed growth by reducing light penetration and modifying soil temperature (Kumar et al., 2017) [18,23] . Crop rotation helps break weed cycles and reduces weed infestation (Chauhan, 2013) [5,10] . Higher seed rates and narrow spacing improve crop competitiveness against weeds (Chauhan, 2012) [4] .

Herbicide-Based Weed Management

Herbicides are the most often employed technique of weed management in DSR systems. Preemergence herbicides are used shortly after planting and are efficient at reducing earlyemerging weeds (Walia et al. 2012) [40] . According to studies, pendimethalin and pretilachlor considerably reduce weed density while improving crop growth (Mahajan & Chauhan, 2013) [25] . Later-emerging weeds are controlled using post-emergence herbicides such as bispyribac sodium and 2, 4-D (Yadav et al., 2009) [41] . The sequential administration of pre-and postemergence herbicides has been shown to be more effective than single applications (Singh et al., 2017) [33] . However, over-reliance on herbicides can lead to herbicide resistance and environmental issues (Chauhan & Johnson, 2010) [6,7] .

Weed Ecology and Dynamics

Understanding weed ecology is critical to efficient weed control. Weed flora in DSR systems consists of grasses, sedges, and broadleaf weeds. Continuous pesticide usage can cause weed flora changes and the establishment of resistant species (Chauhan & Johnson, 2010) [6,7] .

Mechanical Weed Control

Mechanical weed management approaches, such as manual weeding and the use of rotary weeders, are successful (Bhurer et al. 2013) [1] . These strategies enable quick weed control while reducing reliance on pesticides. However, they are labour-intensive and may not be suitable for large-scale farming (Bhurer et al., 2013) [1] .

Integrated Weed Management (IWM)

Integrated techniques that combine herbicides with cultural and mechanical measures have shown improved outcomes.

According to studies, combining pre-emergence herbicides with manual weeding decreases weed density while increasing yield (Walia et al. 2012) [40] . IWM approaches increase weed control effectiveness while reducing pesticide consumption (Chauhan et al., 2014) [8] .

Best Approach Identified

Integrated Weed Management (Sequential Herbicide and Cultural/Mechanical Practices) Why best?

• Controls weeds at all phases.

Conclusion

The study of weed management in DSR has become a crucial topic to research. In the light of the above review, for

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Weed Control and Herbicide ApplicationsRice Cultivation and Yield ImprovementAllelopathy and phytotoxic interactionsDSRresidue mulchingintegrated weed managementweed controlcrop rotation
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