The THE INTERACTION EFFECT OF WEED FREQUENCY AND INTER-ROW SPACING ON THE YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF MUNG BEAN (Vignaradiata L. Wilczek)

Abstract

Mung bean is an important pulse crop but, its productivity is low mainly due to a lack of optimum recommendations for plant population and weed management. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of inter-row spacing and weed frequency on the yield and yield components of mung bean.  The treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design in a factorial arrangement with three replications. Data on crop phenology and growth, yield, and yield components of mung bean were collected and subjected to ANOVA using SAS version 9.1software. The results of ANOVA revealed that weed density, weed dry weight, weed control efficiency, seed yield, biomass yield, and harvesting index were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the interaction effect of inter rows spacing and weeding frequency. The highest seed yield (1536.33kg ha-1) and the highest percent of MRR (3426) with the highest net benefit (82632.70 ETBha^-1) was obtained from the interaction of 30 cm inter-row spacing and weed-free check followed by the combination of 30cm and 40 cm inter-row spacing with two times weeding respectively. This indicated that seed yield increased with reduction of weed population at moderate plant spacing. So, it can be concluded that the use of 30 cm inter-row spacing with weed-free check was the most agronomic efficient and economically viable and is recommended as the first option for mung bean production, followed by the combination of 30 cm and 40 cm inter-row spacing with two times weeding frequency as second and third options respectively.