Impact of Herbicides on Soil Microorganisms, Nodulation and Yield of Chickpea

Background: Chickpea yield losses due to weed competition have been estimated to range between 40 and 87% depending on weed species and density. As farmers continue to realize the usefulness of herbicides, larger quantities are applied to the soil. These herbicides could be leached down, then accumulate to toxic levels in the soil and become harmful to microorganisms, plant, wild life and human being. Hence, there is a need to determine the effect of different herbicides on the growth and multiplication of agriculturally important microorganisms, which in turn could affect the crop growth and yield. Thus there is a need to test pre and post-emergent herbicides for their effect on beneficial soil microflora, as they could be both beneficial and harmful depending on the herbicide used. In this context, a field experiment was conducted to study the effect of herbicides on soil microflora, root nodulation, growth and yield of chickpea under rainfed condition during the rabi season of 2017-18 and 2018-19 at Zonal Research Station, Chianki, Palamau, (Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi), Jharkhand (India).
Methods: In this experiment conducted during rabi season 2017-18 and 2018-19 at Zonal Research Station, Chianki, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. The eight treatments were taken under RBD in three replications. Observations and analysis were carried out by following the standard procedures.
Result: The present investigation clearly brought out that two hand weeding followed by pendimethalin was the best sought out option on controlling weed population, for higher growth and yield of chickpea. Based on the results obtained, it could be inferred that two hand weeding are costly as compared to pendimethalin and it had least adverse effect on microbial population and nodulation. Therefore, pendimethalin can be used to get the higher plant growth and yield of chickpea.