Aerobic rice, Mechanical weeding, Non-chemical weed management, Organic production system, Sahbhagi Dhan

A field experiment was conducted in newly cleared forest area under organic production system at College of Agriculture (CAU-I), Kyrdemkulai, Meghalaya, India during rainy (Kharif) season of 2020. The objective of experiment was to evaluate timing and frequency of manual and mechanical methods of weed management on weeds, growth and yield of direct-seeded upland aerobic rice. The grain yield for both Sahbhagi Dhan and Bhalum-1 rice varieties was highest in weed free and it was at par with yield in mechanical weeding twice at 23-25 and 45-50 days after seeding (DAS).The manual and mechanical weeding didn’t differ significantly due to the use of higher seed rate, lower weed density and uniform distribution of inter and intra-row weeds. The mechanical weeding was found economical than manual weeding due to lesser labour and time requirements for weeding.