Non-chemical weed management in chick pea: A review

One of the most significant pulse crops is the chickpea (Cicer arietinum), however productivity levels are fairly low in India. Among various reasons poor ability to compete with weeds is the main cause for low productivity. Weed control is the basic requirement and the major component of crop management. Weeds on an average reduce the crop yield by 40-87 per cent. Deciding time to control weeds requires detailed knowledge of the weed populations in the field. Different management practices like altering spacing, competitive cultivars, etc. can help in enhancing the productivity. With the world entering the precision-farming era, more emphasis is being put on the use of post-emergence herbicides. Application of two or more herbicide at the same time or as a double knockdown and integrating with hand-weeding provides desirable control of different weed species besides reducing the hazard of chemical weed control.