Performance of herbicide on yield and economic returns of pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp ] in Bihar

Abstract

The research was carried out during kharif season of 2012-13 to find out the cost-effective weed management practices with special focus on fine tuning the dose and time of herbicide application,and its impact on growth and yield of pigeonpea at Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur. The result of the study revealed that uncontrolled growth of weeds led to 40.53% reduction in pigeonpea yield in comparison with the other treatments. However, the highest seed yield (2,725 kg/ha) was obtained in weed free treatment but not cost-effective due to high cost in manual weed operation. Among the herbicide treatments, lower weed index (7.25%) was recorded in T2 (imazethapyr @ 40 g a.i./ha at 15 DAS), which resulted in higher seed yield (2,526 kg/ha), net returns (? 71,059/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (2.74).