OPTIMIZATION OF HERBICIDE DOSE AND SPRAY FLUID FOR DRONE-BASED WEED MANAGEMENT IN IRRIGATED BARNYARD MILLET

Abstract

Yield potential of millets is not fully achieved due to several factors. Crop-weed competition is the major factor in declining the yield of nutri-cereals. The research was conducted to optimize the herbicide dose and spray fluid for two methods of spray to achieve higher weed control efficiency and to exploit the full yield potential of barnyard millet during Rabi, 2023-24 at ADAC&RI, TNAU, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications. The treatment consists of chemical weed management practices with two quantities of herbicide pretilachlor @375 g/ha and 500 g/ha, three levels of spray fluid with two methods of application for drone (40, 50 and 60 l/ha) and for manual spray (500 l/ha). The major weed flora, weed density, weed dry matter production, weed control efficiency and economics were observed and calculated. The results revealed that the application of pre-emergence herbicide pretilachlor @500 g/ha with the spray fluid of 40 l/ha by drone method of spray is considered as optimum dose of herbicide and spray fluid. It achieved higher weed control efficiency of 91.9% at 15DAT (days after transplanting) and 89.2 at 30 DAT of critical period and supported for higher grain yield (2195 kg/ha). Also obtained higher net income (Rs. 27441 /ha) when compared to unweeded control. The same treatment achieved the highest output energy (79160 MJ/ha), energy use efficiency (15.11) and energy productivity (0.42 kg/MJ).