Bioeconomic evaluation of allelopathic crop leachates integrated with reduced doses of herbicide for horse purslane management in maize under field conditions

At present, 255 weed species have been reported as resistant to 163 herbicides worldwide (Heap, 2018). [...]herbicides pollute the water, aerial and soil environments and have enhanced the risk of diseases due to presence of herbicidal residues in the food (Eisler, 2000). The farmers are highly concerned with maximum yield and cost of the weed control methods. [...]besides biological efficiency, any weed management technique may also be evaluated under field conditions for its economic suitability before recommendation to farmers (CIMMYT, 1988). The present study was carried out to investigate a mixture of rapeseed+sunflower+sorghum leachates combined with lower doses (25, 33 and 50% of recommended dose) of S-metolachlor+atrazine for management of horse purslane in maize field and to analyze its economic fitness through calculating net benefits, marginal rate of return and net benefit-cost curve. A label dose of herbicide, S-metolachlor+atrazine and a weedy check as control were also used. 2.3 Statistical design and data collection A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was used with 4 replications and gross plot size of 7 m×2.8 m. At 40 and 60 DAS, horse purslane dry biomass and density were obtained from two places of respective plot measuring 0.5 m×0.5 m. The data of two samples were averaged and presented as m2.