Efeect of pre and postemergence herbicides on pod yield and economics of groundnut, Arachis hypogaea

It is imperative to develop cheaper methods of weed control with effective herbicides alone or mixed with other herbicides compared to integrated weed management that helps in reducing the weed population without much adverse effect on the crop productivity in groundnut. The experiment was conducted at research farm of Zonal Agricultural Research Station, Khargone, JNKVV, Jabalpur during 2009 and 2010. Crop was sown during first week of July with 30 x 10 cm spacing and seed rate was 100 kg/ha. Gross plot size of experiment was 5 x 3 m and the variety used was JGN-3. Results of the experiment showed that application of pre-emergence pendimethalin 1 kg ai/ha + post emergence application of imazathypyr @ 75g ai/ha (750 ml/ha) at 20 DAS gave comparable pod yield (1207 kg/ha) and maximum net return on invested rupee (B:C ratio 2.2). The results showed that use of herbicides to weed control was a cheaper and economical method of weed control.