EFFICACY OF PRE AND POST EMERGENCE HERBICIDES TO CONTROL WEEDS IN CHICKPEA (Cicer arietinum L.)

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomic Research Institute, Faisalabad, during 2007-08 and 2008-09 to evaluate the effect of different herbicides for chickpea, which can be cost effective and acceptable to the growers of this crop. Three pre emergence herbicides viz. Stomp 330E @ 3.00 or 3.50lit, Dual gold 960E @ 2.00 or 2.50 lit and Cruze 10SL @ 2.00 or 2.50 lit.ha-1 and two post emergence herbicides Puma super 75EW @ 1.25lit and Topik 15WP @ 250 g ha-1 were tested. Hand weeding and weedy check (un- treated) treatments were also included in experiment for comparison of economics. Weed control efficacy (WCE) was better in higher dose of pre emergence herbicides i.e. Stomp 330E @ 3.50lit (94.6%), Dual gold @ 2.50lit (90%) and Cruze 10SL @ 2.50lit ha-1(85.36%) as compared to lower doses. WCE of post emergence herbicides i.e. Puma Super 75EW @ 1.25lit (65.76%) and Topik 15WP@ 250 g ha-1 (58.41%) is lower than pre emergence herbicides. Highest WCE (96.22%) was recorded in hand weeding treatments (three at 15, 30, 45 days after sowing). Highest Cost Benefit Ratio (C.B.R) was in lower dose of pre emergence herbicides i.e. Stomp 330E @ 3.00lit. (1:17), Dual gold 960E @ 2.00 (1:12) and Cruze 10SL @ 2.00 (1:16), while it was lower in hand weeding (1:11) and post emergence herbicides i.e. Puma super 75EW @ 1.25lit. or Topik 15WP @ 250 g ha-1 (1:3).