Herbicide evaluation in millet in the northern Guinea and Sudan savannah of Nigeria

Abstract

Millet is an important crop in the drier parts of Africa and Asia, but because it is not widely cultivated in most developed countries of the world, comparatively little research has been conducted with regard to chemical weed control. In 1980 and 1981, atrazine, terbuthylazine and propazine at 0.8 and 1.6 kg a.i./ha and their mixtures were evaluated on millet at two sites in Nigeria. The lower rate of 0.8 kg a.i./ha was either supplemented with one hoe weeding or remained unweeded. Herbicide treatments of 1.6 kg a.i./ha received no additional weeding. Although all rates of herbicide were well tolerated at the two locations in both years, the unweeded lower rates gave a lower grain yield due to weed competition. The weeded lower rates, however, gave yields which were not significantly different from the unweeded higher rates. Atrazine was found to be superior to either terbuthylazine or propazine in regard to weed control. The herbicide mixtures did not give any advantage over the other treatments. At Kano where both the soil and the rainfall are lighter, atrazine at 1.6 kg a.i./ha was slightly toxic to millet.

Notes

Agronomy Department, 2021 Coffey Rd., Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.