Ashok Pravin Kumar B., Sudhakar P., Manimaran S., Meyyappan M., Balabaskar P. and Arulmozhi N.M.
Abstract
Rice productivity is increasingly constrained by labor scarcity, rising cultivation costs, water limitations, and severe weed infestation, particularly in direct-seeded ecosystems, where crop and weed emergence occurs simultaneously. The present study evaluated dry direct-seeded rice (DSR), wet direct-seeded rice (WDSR), and drum-seeded rice in combination with new-generation herbicides and manual weed management practices to improve crop growth and weed suppression under Cauvery delta conditions. A field experiment was conducted during the pre-kharif seasons of 2025 and 2026 at Manali village, Tamil Nadu, using the rice variety TPS-5 in a split-plot design with three replications. The main plots consisted of rice establishment methods, while subplots comprised different weed management practices, including untreated control, bispyribac sodium + pyrazosulfuron ethyl, pretilachlor followed by hand weeding, florpyrauxifen-benzyl + penoxsulam, and hand weeding twice. Growth parameters, dry matter accumulation, weed density, weed dry weight, and weed control efficiency (WCE) were recorded at different growth stages and analyzed statistically using ANOVA. Among the treatments, drum-seeded rice combined with hand weeding twice recorded the highest plant height (98.6 cm), hill density (32 hills m-²), tiller production (308 tillers m-²), and dry matter accumulation (198.4 and 202.3 g m-² during 2025 and 2026, respectively), while significantly reducing weed density and weed biomass with higher weed control efficiency (about 80%). This treatment was statistically comparable with drum-seeded rice treated with florpyrauxifen-benzyl + penoxsulam. In contrast, bispyribac sodium + pyrazosulfuron ethyl exhibited comparatively lower weed suppression and crop growth, particularly under dry direct-seeded rice conditions. The study demonstrated that integrating drum-seeded rice with timely hand weeding or florpyrauxifen-benzyl + penoxsulam can serve as an effective and resource-efficient strategy for sustainable rice production under Cauvery delta agro-climatic conditions.