Stories
Protect Your Paddy Crops From Weeds With These Essential Tips
- •Weeds in paddy fields compete with the main crop for water, nutrients, and sunlight, severely affecting overall plant growth and yield.
- •Progressive farmer Rhanjod Singh advises removing weeds before they form seeds to prevent weed seeds from accumulating in the soil.
- •Farmers should manually uproot weeds completely with their roots and remove them from the field rather than cutting and leaving them behind.
- •Regular field monitoring, proper water management, crop rotation, and timely weeding help reduce future expenses on weed control.
Key Questions Answered
Weeds compete with paddy plants for water, nutrients, and sunlight, which stunts growth and reduces yield. If they mature and drop seeds into the soil, it creates a weed seed bank that increases weed growth and problems in the upcoming crop season.
Farmers should control and uproot weeds before they form seeds, ideally during early monitoring or within the first 15 to 35 days. Manual weeding using laborers, khurpi, or paddy weeders is recommended, especially when plants are older than 25 days to avoid chemical stress.
When paddy plants are older than 25 days, their roots and stems become stronger, and chemical spraying can cause crop stress, stunt growth, and prevent proper grain development. This leads to smaller panicles, fewer grains, and reduced overall production and quality.
