A team of scientists led by Chief Agronomist Dr CS Aulkh, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, investigated various combinations of cultural and mechanical practices for effective weed management in organic wheat over four years in Ludhiana.
Dr. Awlakh said organic agriculture is an emerging alternative agriculture with the aim of sustainable agricultural production along with conservation of natural resources. It’s not just about abandoning agro-chemicals, it’s about blending farm design and management to create an ecosystem that can achieve sustainable productivity without using artificial external inputs like chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
Revealing the results of the investigation, agronomist Dr AS Sidhu of the school of organic farming said that mechanical weeding on beds sown with wheat, paddy straw mulch and soil mulch increased wheat grain yield by 34-48% compared to weed-free checks. However, manual weed management was superior to other methods of weed management but had limitations of labour unavailability and high cost.
Based on the results of the study, PAU recommended that for more profit from organic wheat, it should be sown in beds (2 rows of 30 cm furrow in 37.5 cm wide beds) and mechanical weeding should be practised 30 and 45 days after sowing. This should be done with the same bed planter with a tine attached in the middle for interculture of inter-row space between two wheat rows. This method gave 92.5 per cent weed control efficiency and 253 per cent higher profitability than under weed-free conditions.
“Effective weed management along with mechanical intervention of seeded organic wheat will encourage more farmers to grow organic wheat and expand area,,” said Dr. Sidhu.
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