Weed and Nutrient Management Practices on Weed Dynamics and Yield of Maize + Cowpea Intercropping System

A field experiment was conducted during two consecutive kharif season of 2015 and 2016 at Central Research Station of the College of Agriculture, OUAT- Bhubaneswar to study the influence of weed and nutrient management practices on weed dynamics and yields of maize + cowpea intercropping system. The field experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. There were altogether 16 treatment combinations with Main Plot (Nutrient management) F1=RDF i. e.120, 60, 60 kg/ha N, P2O5 and K2O for 100 per cent maize +10, 20, 10 kg/ha N, P2O5 and K2O for 50 per cent cowpea population. , F2= RDF+FYM 5 t/ha, F3= RDF+ 0.2 Lime requirement (LR), F4= RDF+FYM 5t/ha + Lime 0.2 LR and Sub-Plot (Weed management) W1= Pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha, W2= Oxyfluorfen 0.03 kg/ha, W3= Farmer practices at 20 DAS, W4= Weedy check. Pre-emergence application of oxyfluorfen @ 0.03 kg/ha and combined application of RDF+ FYM+ lime significantly reduced the total weed density, weed dry weight and increase weed control efficiency at all the stages. The same treatments gave maize grain yield of 6.63 and 5.87 t/ha and cowpea green pod yield of 3.1, 3.0 t/ha. These treatments proved to be the best for effective weed-control and system productivity and gave the maximum maize equivalent yield of 9.80, 8.89 t/ha and hence increased the productivity of maize + cowpea intercropping system.