Spear Grass: A Major Threat to Rice Production

Spear grass (Imperata cylindrica) is a common weed peculiar to some parts of Nigeria. It belongs to the grass family and is dominant, competitive, and challenging to control. Spear grass has been known to be one of the major threats to farmers because of the difficulty in control. The use of different herbicides, both systemic and contact, have proved abortive in the control of this weed. This has therefore increased the cost of production in ensuring the optimum rice yield.

The presence of this weed raises multiple concerns, such as how to control this stubborn weed? what type of herbicide to apply? at what stage is best for application? and what frequency of application? owing to the peculiarity of this weed  type,  it should not be treated like others as inappropriate management could lead to a reduction or total failure in rice yield and productivity. 

In managing and controlling this weed and considering the resilence, some approaches we deployed  include applying systemic and contact herbicides at pre- emergency and selective herbicides at post-emergence stages this was done with sufficient water management and right crop spacing adopted with herbicide application at regular intervals to reduce weed dominance.

The combination and efficient use of these approaches assures optimal yield .