Chapter-I

INTRODUCTION

Amongst cereals, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

is the most important widely cultivated crop of the

world and is usually accorded a premier place

among cereals because of the vast acreage

devoted to its cultivation. It is claimed that if rice

is the staple food of half of the world, wheat is the

chief sustenance of other half.

The total area of Wheat in the world is around

159 million hectare with a production of 687.50

million tonnes (2014-15). The average world

productivity is 4561 Kg./ha. The major Wheat

producing countries are China, India, USA, France,

Russia, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Turkey, UK,

Argentina, Iran and Italy. These countries

contribute about 71% of the total world Wheat

production. India stands fi rst in area and second in

production next to China in the world (2014-15).

The Indias share in world Wheat area is about

12.54%, whereas it occupies 11.39 % share in the

total world Wheat production. There is hardly any

scope for expansion of area under Wheat. The main

emphasis would be on increasing the productivity

of Wheat by adopting the improved cultivation

practices.

Wheat is grown in India over an area of about

28.04 Million ha. with a production of 78.57 million

tonnes. The normal National productivity is about

28.02q ha - 1 . The major Wheat producing States are

Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,

Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka,

West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and

Jammu & Kashmir. These States contribute about

99.5% of total Wheat production in the country.

Remaining States, namely, Jharkhand, Assam,

Chhattisgarh, Delhi and other North Eastern States

contribute only about 0.5 % of the total Wheat

production in the country.

Among food grains, Wheat stands next to Rice,

both in area and production. The share of Wheat in

total food grain production is around 35.5% and

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share in area is about 21.8% of the total area under

food grains.

In India mainly three species of Triticum

mainly aestivum, durum and dicoccum are

cultivated in which area is approximately 95, 4 and

1 per cent, respectively. Triticum aestivum is

cultivated in all the regions of the country while

durum is cultivated in Punjab and Central India and

dicoccum in Karnataka

Wheat is staple food of approximately 23 per

cent population of the world. Twenty per cent

energy is achieved) through wheat at global level.

Among food grains wheat is the richest source of

protein and its stands at second place after pulses.

In general wheat contains carbohydrate (70%),

protein (12%), lipid (2% cent), vitamins & minerals

(2 %) and crude fi bre (2%). Besides staple food for

human beings, wheat straw is a good source of

feed for a large population of cattle in our country.

{Jaiswal, J.P. (2009)

Weeds are the plants, which grow where they

are not wanted. They grow in the fi elds where they

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compete with crops for water, soil nutrients, light

and space and thus reduce crop yields. They also

harbor insects, pests and micro-organism. Certain

weeds release into the soil the inhibitors or

poisonous substances which are harmful to the

plants, human beings and live-stocks. They

increase the expenditure on labour and equipment,

render harvesting diffi cult, and reduce the quality

and marketability of agricultural produce. They

block the drainage and impede the fl ow of water in

canals and water-transport channels. The dense

growth of weeds in water pollutes the water

because they deoxygenate the water.

Wheat fi eld is generally infested from both

dicot and monocot weeds. The moajor dicot weeds

are: Chenopodium album (bathua), Fumaria

parvifl ora (gajri), Cirsium arvense (kateli),

Anagallis arvensis (Krishna neel), Melilotus alba

and Melilotus indica (senji), Bicia sativa (ankri),

Lathyrus spp. (chatri marri) etc. Monocot weeds

include: Phalaris minor, Avena fatua (wild oat),

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Polypogon monspliensis, Cyperus rotundus (motha)

and Cynodon dactylon (doob).

Generally, weeds are eradicated with the help

of hoe, khurpi etc. However, now-a day it has

become diffi cult due to labour cost and

unavailability of labour. Now a number of chemical

weedicides are available that control the weeds in

wheat rather eff ectively.

The controlling of weeds in the growing crops

with weedicides increases their yields and ensures

the effi cient use of irrigation, fertilizers and plant-

protection measures, such as the spraying of

insecticides and fungicides. The removal of weeds

from the growing crops facilitates easy harvesting

and gives a high-quality produce without admixture

with weed seeds. Chemical weed control can be

adopted quite in time and in situations and under

conditions which make manual or mechanical

weeding diffi cult. A great advantage of this method

lies in killing weeds in the crop row or in the

immediate vicinity of crop plants. The chemical

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method is easier, less time-consuming and less

costly than weeding by hired labourers.

Therefore in view of the above considerations

the present investigation entitled Chemical Weed

Control in Wheat was conducted at Shri Dev

Bhoomi Institute of Science & Technology at

Mazhon, Dehradun during the winter season of

2016-2017 with the following objectives.

To select the suitable herbicides for

controlling the weeds in wheat under agro-

climatic conditions of Dehradun region.

To fi nd out the optimum dose of herbicides for

controlling the weeds present in wheat in the

locality.