New herbicide dose nearly matches hand-weeded rice yields
Crop Improvement
Direct-seeding rice saves farmers water and labor compared to transplanting, but weeds like barnyardgrass and crabgrass have made it hard to rely on until herbicides like this one closed the yield gap.
Rice farmers who skip transplanting and just scatter seed into wet fields save time and water, but weeds crowd out the young rice plants far more aggressively than in transplanted paddies. Researchers tested a new weed killer called florpyrauxifen-benzyl at several doses and found that even a low dose knocked back seven common weed species enough to produce yields almost as high as a completely weed-free plot. That means farmers growing rice this way could get strong harvests without needing as much herbicide or hand-weeding labor.
Key Findings
Florpyrauxifen-benzyl at 62.5 g/ha gave the lowest weed density and dry weight, with 39.06 and 37.5 g/ha performing statistically the same
Weed-free plots yielded 4757 kg/ha grain and 7158 kg/ha straw, with 37.5 and 39.06 g/ha doses coming closest to matching this
Seven major weed species were controlled, including Echinochloa colona, Eleusine indica, Digitaria sanguinalis, Panicum repens, Cyperus spp., Commelina benghalensis, and Ageratum conyzoides
chevron_right Technical Summary
A new herbicide called florpyrauxifen-benzyl controls weeds in directly-seeded rice fields better than the standard treatment, letting farmers get near weed-free yields without transplanting seedlings by hand.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Performance of Florpyrauxifen-benzyl: A Novel Post-emergence Herbicide for Weed Control in Wet Direct-seeded Rice
A field experiment was conducted at CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, to evaluate the efficacy of different doses of florpyrauxifen-benzyl compared with bispyribac-Na in wet di...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Ageratum conyzoides is native to Tropical America, especially Brazil, and is an invasive weed in many other regions. It is an herb that is 0.5–1 m. high, with ovate leaves 2–6 cm long, and flowers are white to mauve.