Pre- and post-emergence herbicides for weed management in mungbean

Mungbean is recommended for cultivation mainly in Kharif season under Vidarbha condition in Maharastra, India. Weed management is an important factor for enhancing the productivity of mungbean as weeds compete for nutrients, water, light and space with crop during early growth period. Yield losses in mungbean due to weeds have been estimated to range between 30-50% (Kumar et al. 2004). Mechanical practices such as hand weeding and inter -culturing are effective but unavailability of labour and incessant rains during the early crop season normally limit the weeding operations. Therefore, chemical weeding under such circumstances become indispensible and can be the excellent alternate. Pendimethalin is only recommended pre-emergence herbicides in mungbean, however, peasants could not find time to apply it during the same day or next day due to busy shedule in sowing operation. This warrants the use of pre- and post-emergence herbicides for weed control. The present study was, therefore, conducted to evaluate the effect of different herbicides for mungbean, which can be cost effective and acceptable to the growers of this crop.