EFFICACY OF PRE AND POST EMERGENCE HERBICIDES TO CONTROL WEEDS IN CHICKPEA (Cicer arietinum L.)

A field experiment was conducted at agronomic research institute, faisalabad, during 2007-08 and 2008-09 to evaluate the effect of different herbicides for chickpea, which can be cost effective and acceptable to the growers of this crop. three pre emergence herbicides viz. stomp 330e @ 3.00 or 3.50lit, dual gold 960e @ 2.00 or 2.50 lit and cruze 10sl @ 2.00 or 2.50 lit.ha-1 and two post emergence herbicides puma super 75ew @ 1.25lit and topik 15wp @ 250 g ha-1 were tested. hand weeding and weedy check (un- treated) treatments were also included in experiment for comparison of economics. weed control efficacy (wce) was better in higher dose of pre emergence herbicides i.e. stomp 330e @ 3.50lit (94.6%), dual gold @ 2.50lit (90%) and cruze 10sl @ 2.50lit ha-1(85.36%) as compared to lower doses. wce of post emergence herbicides i.e. puma super 75ew @ 1.25lit (65.76%) and topik 15wp@ 250 g ha-1 (58.41%) is lower than pre emergence herbicides. highest wce (96.22%) was recorded in hand weeding treatments (three at 15, 30, 45 days after sowing). highest cost benefit ratio (c.b.r) was in lower dose of pre emergence herbicides i.e. stomp 330e @ 3.00lit. (1:17), dual gold 960e @ 2.00 (1:12) and cruze 10sl @ 2.00 (1:16), while it was lower in hand weeding (1:11) and post emergence herbicides i.e. puma super 75ew @ 1.25lit. or topik 15wp @ 250 g ha-1 (1:3).