Abstract:
Rice has become an important strategic and daily staple food crop in Nigeria. The trajectory of
rice output in Nigeria has been increasing, but the yield is low (1.7 tha-1
) compared to other rice
producing regions like Egypt (7.25 t ha-1
), China (6.5 t ha-1
) and the USA (7.5 t ha-1
).
Disseminating improved varieties and other modern inputs would increase the production per
unit area of farmers. It is based on the above that field trials were carried out during 2017/2018
dry season at the Teaching and Research Fadama farm of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University
Sokoto located at Kwalkwalawa (Latitude 130
01?N, Longitude 50
09?E) and that of Kebbi State
University of Science and Technology located at Jega (Latitude 120
21?N; Longitude 40
36?E) to
study the response of rice and weed occurrence to integrated weed management (IWM) and
variety. The two locations lie within the Sudan Savanna ecological zone of Nigeria. The
experiment consisted of six weed management options (Solarization/Orizo-plus (at 3WAT)/Hoeweeding (at 6WAT), Round-up/Orizo-plus (at 3WAT)/Hoe-weeding (at 6WAT),
Solarization/Hoe-weeding (at 3WAT)/Hoe-weeding (at 6WAT), Round-up/Hoe-weeding(at
3WAT)/Hoe-weeding(at 6WAT), Weedy-check and Weed-free) and three rice varieties (Jamila,
Faro 44 and Faro 57). The factorial combinations of the experiment were laid out in a
randomized complete block design (RCBD) with split-plot arrangement and were replicated
three times. The main plots were assigned weed management options while rice varieties formed
the sub-plots. The result of the study indicated that each of the IWM gave a similar yield
performance under each variety. The combination of solarization, orizo-plus and hoe-weeding
achieved an effective weed control with weed dry matter of 33.56g/m2
close to the weekly hoeweeding (16.13g/m2
). The highest grain production was achieved with Faro 57 variety (4.6 t/ha)
under good weed management practices. The results of this study therefore recommend Faro 57 under combination of solarization, orizo-plus and hoe-weeding IWM option for an increased rice
yield in the study area. |
