Nivetha K., Anandan P., Kannappan M. and Vasanth P.
Abstract
A field study was conducted to assess the effect of rice cultivars and weed management strategies on the productivity and economic viability of drum-seeded rice. This investigation is crucial given the increasing labour costs and water scarcity, which have made direct-seeded rice a viable alternative to traditional transplanted methods. The experiment utilized in a split-plot design with triplicate, with different cultivars as main plots and various weed management practices as sub plots. Results revealed that among the treatments, M3S1 (ADT 54 with Sesbania aculeata incorporation fb cono weeding at 30 DAS) recorded the highest yield attributes such as productive tillers (309 m-2) and filled grain per panicle (128.32), grain yield (6339 kg ha-1) and straw yield (9018 kg ha-1). In economics of gross returns (Rs.1,27,159), net returns (Rs.72,196) and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) (2.31) was registered the highest in the treatment M3S1(ADT 54 with Sesbania aculeata incorporation fb cono weeding at 30 DAS). These findings provide insights into optimizing drum seeded rice production by combining an efficient cultivar with a sustainable weed management approach. Therefore, integrated weed management involving cultivar and Sesbania aculeata incorporation fb cono weeding at 30 DAS, emerged as an appropriate and cost-effective solution for maximizing drum-seeded rice productivity and profitability.