Weed management strategies in elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) under different agro environments in India

In elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson], weeds are the major constraints cause yield reduction up to 100% due to its very slow initial sprouting, establishment and plant growth. Information on proper weed management in elephant foot yam in India is limited as its commercial cultivation started very recently. For arriving at suitable and better weed control, field experiments were conducted for 3 growing seasons (2019 to 2021) at ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala with 8 treatments in 6 different agro-climatic zones of India. The treatments included a combination of pre emergence (PE) and post emergence (POE) herbicides, PE followed by hand weeding (HW), intercropping followed by POE, HW with POE, POE alone, and weed control ground cover cloth mulch (WCGCC), three HW, and a weedy check were included for comparison. Weed flora was dominated by broad-leaf weeds, Digera arvensis (L.), Commelina benghalensis (L.); grasses, Pennisetum pedicellatum Trin., Cynodon dactylon (L.) pers.; and the sedge, Cyperus rotundus (L.), in most of the locations. Pooled analysis of data collected over different locations indicated that the lower mean weed biomass (21.24 g/m) and higher mean corm yield (35.13 t/ha), higher mean net income (`0.326 million/ha) were recorded with weed control ground cover mulch and higher mean B:C ratio (2.39) by application of post emergence herbicide at 30, 60 and 90 days after planting (DAP).