Answer:
The
unwanted plants in a cultivated field are called weeds. They compete for food,
space and light with the main crop plants. They germinate and grow faster, and
thus effect the quality and yield of the crop. For these reasons, weed plants
need to be removed from the cultivated field in early stage of crop. The
methods employed for weed control are as follows;
(a) Mechanical Method: The weed plants are removed from the field either manually or with
the help of agricultural implements like uprooting or hand hoeing or weeding
with khurpi, ploughing, etc.
(b) Cultural Method: This method includes:
(i) Proper seed bed preparation
(ii) Timely sowing of crops
(ii) Intercropping (iv) Crop
rotation
(c) Chemical Methods: By spraying chemicals that do not harm crop plants but destroy only
the weed plants, the latter can be controlled. These chemicals are called
weedicides, e.g., 2, 4-D and atrazine.
(d) Biological Method: As we know, some insects feed particular weeds. Thus, we use these
insects as biological weed-controlling agents like the use of cochineal insect
to control Opuntia weed and the use of the grass carp fish to control aquatic
weeds.
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