IMPACT OF VARIOUS WEED MANAGEMENT APPROACHES ON THE YIELD OF CHICKPEA CICER ARIETINUM L. CROP

A 2-year field trial was carried out at the Agricultural Research Station of Ahmad Wala, district Karak of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan during the chickpea growing seasons of 2014 and 2015 in order to investigate numerous weed control practices on the yield and yield components of chickpea crop. Nine treatments were used in the experiment viz; weedy check, hand weeding, the herbicides Stomp 330 EC, Puma Super 75 EW, Dual Gold 960 EC, Topik 15 WP, Isoproturon 500 EW and water extracts of Parthenium and Eucalyptus. The year effect was found significant after combined analysis of the data over the years. Similarly, all the treatments significantly affected weed density m(-2), number of branches plant(-1), number of pods plant(-1), number of seeds pod(-1), and the seed yield of chickpea (kg ha(-1)) during both the years. With the application of Isoproturon 500 EW, a significantly lower weed density was recorded as compared to control plots in 2014 as well as in 2015. In contrary, a significantly highest chickpea seed yield was obtained in the plots of Isoproturon 500 EW in the two years study while the second best was the application of Eucalyptus extract that produced the second highest seed yield of chickpea in both the trials. In case of water extract, the Eucalyptus extract was superior to Parthenium extract in terms of weed control. It was concluded that Isoproturon 500 EW can be the desirable method for obtaining the optimum weed control and desirable seed yield of chickpea crop in the agro-ecological conditions of Karak, Pakistan.