DEVELOPMENT OF ECO-FRIENDLY AND NON-HAZARDOUS WEED-CONTROL TECHNOLOGYFOR LOWLAND RICE BY SMOTHERING THROUGH LDPE FILM

Intensive use of chemical herbicides and pesticides has raised serious concern about their effect on non-target organisms, plants, human bod ies and the environment. Hence there is a continuous search for benign , harmless, non-hazardous and eco-friendly technology to control the g rowth of weeds which compete with crops for water, nutrients, light an d space; thus reducing crop yield significantly. An attempt was made t o control the weeds through smothering. This controls the weeds by cut ting off light from the photosynthetic portion of weed plants by using black polyethylene sheets (LPDE film) which inhibit the top growth. E xperiments to control the weeds in a lowland rice field through smothe ring were conducted in the high rainfall coastal region of eastern Ind ia wth eight treatments including smothering and conventional methods like hand/mechanical weeding and herbicides, etc. The treatment of smo thering for one week + puddling + transplanting proved to be better th an other conventional methods and may replace herbicide and hand/mecha nical weeding totally with a better rice yield.