Eco-friendly, sustainable and integrated weed management can increase crop yields by 18-22 per cent, boosting food production in the country, researchers have said. They added that weed competed with crops for light, nutrients and water, resulting in yield loss of up to 80-90 per cent in the worst case scenarios.
In Bangladesh, improper weeding lead to yield losses between 40 to 50 per cent in rice, 24 to 58 per cent in wheat, almost 49 per cent in maize, 43 per cent in potato, 20 per cent in sugarcane, 75-80 per cent in jute, nine per cent in tea and 25 to 60 per cent in other crops, the researchers said.
The views were expressed at the sixth conference of the Weed Science Society of Bangladesh (WSSB) yesterday. Around 400 researchers from different organizations, (NGOs) and agricultural universities took part in the conference that was held at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) in Gazipur.
Dr Md Giash Uddin Mian, vice-chancellor of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), was present as the chief guest. Dr Abul Kalam Azad, director general of BRRI, Dr Md Ansar Ali, BRRI director (Administration and Common Service), and Dr FH Ansarey, managing director and chief executive officer of ACI Ltd, attended the conference as special guests.
WSSB general secretary and senior scientific officer of BRRI (Agronomy Division) Dr Md Khairul Alam Bhuiyan presented the keynote paper.
Bhuiyan said, “In the current practice, farmers usually do weeding by hand, hoe, mechanical weeder and chemical weeding with herbicide. Hand weeding in field crops is costly, needs more money and is time-consuming. Mechanical weed control is not very popular due to its unavailability and lack of timely effectiveness.”
The cost of hand weeding was around 10,000 to 18,000 Tk/ha depending on the crop, he said, adding that now farmers were more interested in using herbicides.
“Herbicide adoption is increasing day by day due to its quick effect and low cost. But improper herbicide application may cause environmental hazards and may disturb field ecosystems,” he observed.
About 19 scientific papers from different research organizations were presented at the conference.
The papers discussed developing innovative approaches, economic and eco-friendly weed management technologies to address challenges for sustainable agriculture and other social benefits.
Most of them suggested that integrated weed management could increase crop yield significantly. However, future emphasis should be on mechanical and biological weed controls to avoid hazards to crops as well as the ecosystem.
Herbicide should be applied in proper doses at the proper time and advanced research should be carried out on the impact of different herbicide groups on the crop-soil system.
The researchers concluded that low cost, eco-friendly and sustainable weed control should be adopted to increase food production and also help the country to meet its sustainable development goals.