Enhancing Food Security Through Sustainable Agriculture: Investigating the Allelopathic Effects of Sorghum on Weed Management in Field Pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense)

Allelopathy can be a viable approach to address the issues of environmental degradation by reducing the use of herbicides and herbicide-resistant weeds. Allelopathic crop residues have a lot of potential for improving soil quality and suppressing weed growth. A field experiment at an agronomic research farm, Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, Punjab, examined the effects of water extracts and crop residues from sorghum on the population of weeds, indices of weed management, and the productivity of field peas. The experiment during the year 2022-2023 comprised in randomized block design with 2 levels of Sorghum water extract (1:10, 1:20 w/v), 3 levels of Sorghum stalk soil incorporation @ 2, 4, 6 Mg.ha-1, Sorghum surface mulching at 10tonnes ha-1, Field pea and rabi sorghum intercropping at 2:1, Weedy check and hand weeding. The findings showed that the sorghum surface mulching, addition of sorghum water extract, and sorghum stalk incorporation significantly altered the dynamics of weeds which was comparable with hand weeding. In the case of weed density (9.17 no.m-2), weed fresh (7.66g), and dry weight (3.0g) hand weeding gave the best result which was followed by sorghum surface mulching with 10.77 weeds no.m-2, 10.11 g weed fresh weight and 4.26gm weed dry weight. The highest weed control efficiency (80.9%) was recorded in hand weeding which was followed by sorghum water extract (1:10) and sorghum stalk incorporation (4 Mg.ha-1). The weed management index, weed persistence index, and agronomic management index showed an inverse relationship with weed control efficiency. Hand weeding (20, 40, 60 DAS) gave the highest grain yield (2897 kg.ha-1) of field pea followed by Sorghum surface mulching. Yield attributes were calculated which prescribed that all the treatments significantly reduced the weed infestation and increased the yield attributes over a weedy check. Hand weeding gave the best result, but it is not economical due to the intensive labor requirement. Initiating sustainable weed control and significantly improving the nutrient content of field peas can be achieved through sorghum surface mulching, sorghum stalk incorporation at 4 Mg.ha-1, and sorghum water extract (1:10). These practices can contribute to environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture.