Phytosociological study of weeds in major rabi season crops of Bundelkhand region

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate weed flora diversity in crops during rabi season of 2019-20 at the Research and Students Instructional Farm of College of Agriculture, Banda University of Agriculture and Technology, Banda, Uttar Pradesh, India. This study identified and quantified the floristic composition of weeds in three different crops. The number of monocot species recorded in the study was 4 (20%), while the number of dicot species was 16 (80%). Out of 20 weed species 17 were annual and remaining 3 were perennial. The frequency, density, abundance and their relative values were studied. The results obtained indicated that Cyperusrotundus and Cynodondactylon were the most important weed of all three crops. Importance Value Index (IVI) value of Cyperusrotundus in chickpea and lentil was 110.56 and 192.66, respectively while IVI value of Cynodondactylon in mustard was 128.99 showing dominance of these weeds in concerned crops. Shannon diversity index was highest in chickpea (1.46) followed by mustard (1.13) and 0.54 in lentil crop. Weed flora in lentil when compared with mustard was found more dissimilar (0.882) than between lentil and chickpea. Weed species were uniformly distributed in chickpea crop than mustard and lentil as indicated by Evenness Index. Results obtained from this study would be useful in makingan efficient weed management strategy and further research towards new or improved weed control measures.