Integrated weed management strategies for organic sugarcane production systems

Abstract:

An old Indian farming saying holds that weeds eat before the farmer does. In organic sugarcane, where synthetic herbicides are forbidden, this proverb rings especially true. This research evaluated six weed management strategies for organic sugarcane (variety Co 86032) over two plant-crop cycles (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) at Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra. Treatments included a weedy check, hand weeding (three rounds), stale seedbed technique, trash mulching at 10 t/ha, cowpea intercrop as living cover, and an Integrated Weed Management (IWM) package combining stale seedbed + mulching + one hand weeding. The IWM package reduced weed density by 71% (from 186 to 54 plants/m2) and weed dry weight by 78% compared with the weedy check. Cane yield under IWM reached 84.7 t/ha, statistically comparable to three-round hand weeding (81.3 t/ha) but at 40% lower labour cost. Trash mulching alone reduced weed density by 58% and was the most cost-effective single intervention. These results suggest that combining cultural and mechanical methods into an IWM package can control weeds effectively in organic sugarcane without relying on herbicides.