Weed management practices in finger millet: A review

Abstract

Finger millet production requires a lot of labour, particularly for weed management practices. Weed spectrum depends on the efficiency of the finger millet ecosystem and control measures practiced. A most possible way for controlling weeds is by manipulating the cropping system and making conditions more favourable for crop growth and unfavourable for weed growth. Weeds belong to various groups viz., grasses, sedges and broad leaved weeds (BLW) are associated in finger millet cultivation. The weed management practices are limited to five options viz., preventive, cultural, mechanical, chemical and biological methods. The common weed control method used is the hand weeding which is time consuming and also difficult to control weeds. Although manual weeding is effective, it is costly, tedious and time consuming. Fischer et al. (2001) reported that the increasing cost of labour have made these methods uneconomical for weed control. Since single method is not able to control all weeds up to desired level, integration of weed management practices can be an effective weed control strategy to achieve greater weed control efficiency and increase overall benefit of finger millet cultivation.