EFFICACY OF TILLAGE AND MULCHING PRACTICES FOR WEED SUPPRESSION AND MAIZE YIELD UNDER NON-IRRIGATED CONDITION

A field experiment was conducted at New Developmental Farm, the University of Agriculture, Peshawar, during summer, 2012 to check the impact of different tillage and mulching practices on weed suppression and maize yield. Maize variety Azam was sown in the trial. The design of the experiment was randomized complete block design having two factors viz., tillage practices (conventional, optimum and minimum) and mulches (wheat straw and Berseem straw). The treatments combination were (1) Cultivator 4 times + Wheat straw (2) Cultivator 4 times + Berseem straw (3) Cultivator 4 times +Control (4) Mouldboard plow followed by rotavator + wheat straw (5) Mouldboard plow followed by rotavator + Barseem straw (6) Mouldboard plow followed by rotavator + control (7) Cultivator twice + wheat straw (8) Cultivator twice + Barseem straw (9) Cultivator twice + control. The results showed that maximum weed density (58 %) and fresh weed biomass (45.77 g m^-2) was recorded in no mulch treatment plots with twice cultivation. Similarly maximum biological yield (11179 kg ha^-1), grain yield (2383.8 kg ha^-1) was noticed in plots practiced with wheat straw mulch and mould board plow + Rotavator. In all respect the combination of wheat straw mulch and moldboard plow followed by rotavator were proved fruitful in weed suppression and increasing maize yield under non-irrigated condition.