TITLE:
Use of Gramoxone 20SL (Paraquat) Prior to Land Preparation in Controlling Aquatic Weeds in Wetland Areas of Bangladesh
AUTHORS:
Md. Masud Rana, Md.Abdullah Al Mamun, Mohammad Habibullah, Md. Imran Ullah Sarkar, Md. Abdul Jalil Mridha
KEYWORDS:
Aquatic Weeds; Gramoxone 20SL; SDR; Weed Control Efficiency
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.3,
February
8,
2014
ABSTRACT: Emergent aquatic weeds present in the monocropped
fresh water wetland area of Bangladesh create a hazard in land preparation by
developing dense stands. A field experiment was conducted at the farmers’ field
of two villages namely Mahilara and
Kashemabad under Gournadi Upazila of Barisal district, Bangladesh during October 2012 to evaluate the efficacy of Gramoxone 20SL (Paraquat) in
controlling emergent aquatic weeds and to find out an appropriate dose of this
herbicide. Three doses of Gramoxone 20SL at 1.96 l·ha-1, 2.00 l·ha-1 and 2.04 l·ha-1 were tried with an untreated control. All treatments
were laid out in a randomized complete block design and replicated thrice.
There were 8 different emergent weed species infesting the field among which
the most dominant weed species were Eichhornia crassipes, Pistia stratiotes, Enhydra
fluctuans, Monochoria vaginalis, Echinochloa crus-galli. The results revealed that, weed control efficiency was significantly affected
by different herbicidal treatments. The treatments, Gramoxone 20SL at 2.00 l·ha-1 and 2.04 l·ha-1 were controlled in all the emergent aquatic weeds more than 85%
infesting both the sites. Application of non-selective
herbicide Gramoxone 20SL at 2.00 l·ha-1 prior to land preparation was
most effective to suppress weed dry
masses in both the site resulting reduced land preparation cost up to 78.93% as compared to manual
weed control.