Management of Prosopis juliflora through Chemicals: A Case Study in India

Abstract

Prosopis juliflora is popularly known as Honey Mesquite in the western world, commonly known as mesquite in India and popularly known as Bellary Jali in Karnataka. Prosopis is fast growing, salt-tolerant and drought-tolerant trees that can grow in an areas receiving as little as 50 mm of rainfall per year. This is a rhizomatous perennial weed dominating an important part of productive agricultural lands in most of the developing countries including India. It tolerates traditional methods of weed control such as soil solarisation and mechanical methods. This study was carried out to manage this weed with the available herbicides on cultivated land at the Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences Campus, Raichur in Karnataka State in southern India during 2009 to 2011. Several easily available herbicides were used including Mera – 71 (Glyphosate), Paraquat, 2, 4-D amine and ester, Diuron, Keroscene and Coaltar as individual chemicals with different concentrations and combination of chemicals were also tried. The study results reveal that all treatments except diuron / keroscene / coaltar conmbinations reduced growth and development of Prosopis juliflora. Mera-71, 2, 4-D ester followed by paraquat were the best in affecting weed recovery. Results also indicates that the control of regrowth of Prosopis juliflora is effectively achieved by two times applications of systemic translocated herbicides such as Mera-71 (Glyphosate) and   2,4- found better as compared to paraquat, diuron and other farmer practices.

Keywords: Prosopis juliflora, Mangement, Glyphosate, 2,4-D, Paraquat, Diuron, Keroscene