Weeding Frequency to Increase Productivity of Sorghum in Gumara -Maksegnit Watershed

Abstract

In the Amhara region, Ethiopia, sorghum production took 655,671 hectares of land, of which North Gondar zone accounts for one-third of it, 204, 686 ha. But its productivity is low, around 1.9 tons per hectare.  Sorghum production has so many constraints, insect pest, disease, and weed infestation are the most known among them. Farmers in the Northwestern Ethiopia, Gumara-maksegnit watershed have no weeding habit of their sorghum at the right time and frequency because they believe that weed-free crops at the early stage of the crop will be infested with stalk borer damage and after at the beginning of September they start to weed their land and used the weed as a feed for their animal. Therefore the objective of this study was to determine the weeding frequency of sorghum in Gumara-maksegnit watershed, North Western Ethiopia in order to increase its productivity. The experiment was conducted in the Gumara- maksegnit watershed for two cropping seasons (2014-2015) in the main season at three sites. The experimental design was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments like weed-free, unweeded, and farmers practice treatments, hand weeding once, two times hand weeding, three times hand weeding, and Shelshalo were studied. According to the combined analysis of variance of the two-year data showed that weed-free treatments gave the highest yield (3314 kg/ha) followed by two times and three times hand weeding. However, there was no significant difference between weed-free and two times hand weeding. Therefore, two times hand weeding is recommended for Gondar Zuria and similar agroecological areas.