Vol. 10, Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Dr. BT Patil, BB Handal and CB Bachkar

Abstract:
Cluster bean [Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub] is a versatile and multipurpose under exploited leguminous vegetable crop of arid and semi-arid region belonging to the family Fabacae or Leguminosae. The crop is grown for green fodder, fresh vegetable, green manuring, gum and seed purpose. A year’s seeding is seven year’s weeding” and thus Indian agriculture has been defined as a “confrontation with weeds”. The welfare of mankind is highly dependent on farmer’s ability to control the growth of weeds. Thus, it is necessary to concentrate more on weeding out the undesirables than for any other activity related to increasing agricultural production. Weeds pose most serious problem in legume crops because of the liberal use of farm yard manure, chemical fertilizers and frequent irrigations that help the weeds to grow vigorously. Weeds reduce yield by competing with crops for water, nutrients, and sunlight. Season long competition with weeds in clusterbean causes severe yield reduction ranging from 29-48 per cent and severity may even be higher (70-98%) depending on the weed infestation. Hand weeding is a traditional and effective method of weed control, but untimely rains, unavailability of labour at peak time and increasing labour cost are the main limitations of manual weeding. Under such situations, the only alternative that needs to be explored is the use of suitable herbicides which may be effective and economically viable. Herbicide like pendimethalin, Imazthapyr with or one weeding or alone found effective for control weeds. Use of suitable herbicides alone or integrated with hand weeding needs to be explored as an effective and economical method of weed management in cluster bean.