Weed Management in Cowpea-A Review

Abstract

India is the largest producer and consumer of the pulses in world. There is a huge shortage of pulses in the country to meet out the domestic demand especially of vegetarian population. The low production and productivity of pulses under Indian condition is mainly due to several biotic and abiotic constraints. In general, the pulses crops are more susceptible to the stresses including weeds as compare to the cereals and oilseeds. It was widely reported that yield losses due to weeds especially in the pulses are more than the loss caused either by insect-pest or diseases. Besides, pulses crops are treated on low priority compared to the cereals. Little attention has been given in the past by researchers also for developing effective and efficient strategies for weed management in this group of crops. Being a protein rich crop, Cowpeas is one of the most important food legume crops in the arid and semiarid tropics of the world. Due to its drought-tolerant characteristics, cowpea is known to well-adapted to the drier regions of the tropics, where other food legumes do not perform well. It also has the useful ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen through its root nodules. Weeds posses’ a severe problem in cowpea production and, if it is not managed with best management practices, can serve as hibernating agent for pests and reduce not only yield but also quality of the seed and fodder yield. Bing a poor competitor with weeds and its cultivation during monsoon season, the cowpea known to infested with a wider range of weeds especially at the initial stage of growth. Based on the location, soil type, verities and agronomic management the reduction in the yield due to weeds in cowpea is in the range of 12.7 as high as 60.0%.Weed control methods employed depends on the nature of the weed problem and the means available with the farmer to control them efficiently. In general, the problem of weed infestation in cowpea is more severe at the initial period (5-8 weeks). Chemical weed control alone or in conjugation with manual weeding is most promising, although there are cultural options like intercropping, crop rotation, closer spacing, tillage, etc. which could reduce the weed infestation in cowpea. Due to its smothering capacity, its intercropping with other legumes and cereals proved to be reducing the problem of the weeds leading to higher grain yield and dry fodder yield than in sole crop. Integration of the components of production technologies enhanced the productivity of cowpea which ultimately resulted into higher net returns to the farmers. Therefore, an attempt has been made in this article to review works done on several aspects of weed management in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata).

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