Chemical weed management in chickpea (Cicer arietinum) under Vertisols of Eastern Plateau Plain zone of India

A field experiment was conducted during the winter seasons of 2020–21 and 2021–22 at Instructional-cumResearch farm of Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh to study the effect of various herbicides and their combinations on weed dynamics and performance of chickpea. A total of 14 treatment combinations including hand weeding and unweeded control were laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. The results revealed that significantly lower weed density and dry matter production, weed index and higher weed control efficiency were observed under two hand weedings at 20 and 40 DAS which was found at par to oxyfluorfen 150 g/ha (PE) fb topramezone 20.6 g/ha (PoE) and metribuzin 350 g/ha (PE) fb topramezone 20.6 g/ ha (PoE). The higher dry matter accumulation, crop growth rate, number of pods/plant, number of seeds/pod, seed index, seed yield (1.78 t/ha) and stover yield (2.70 t/ha) of chickpea were obtained with oxyfluorefen 150 g/ha (PE) fb topramezone 20.6 g/ha (PoE). Application of oxyfluorefen 150 g/ha (PE) fb topramezone 20.6 g/ha (PoE) controlled complex weeds flora effectively and fetched maximum net returns (`63.1 × 103/ha) and benefit-cost ratio (3.02).