Abstract
To mitigate environmental pollution and food contamination caused by inappropriate and excessive herbicide usage, most potent herbicides should be screened to control rice weeds. A research trial was executed for assessing the comparative efficacy of different herbicides to control rice field weeds and to evaluate the toxicity on rice under normal (distilled water) as well as different salinity levels (4 and 8 dS m(-1)). The study was designed to select the most potent herbicide and its appropriate dose for weed control of rice crop in coastal areas. Fourteen herbicidal treatments were included weed free crop, Pretilachlor (0.25, 0.50, 0.375 and 0.75 kg a.i. ha(-1)), Propanil + Thiobencarb (0.6 + 1.2, 0.9 + 1.8, 1.2 + 2.4 and 1.8 + 3.6 kg a.i. ha(-1)), Bensulfuron + MCPA (0.03 + 0.05, 0.045 + 0.075, 0.06 + 0.1 and 0.09 + 0.15 kg a.i. ha(-1)) and weedy check (control). The results revealed that all tested herbicides in higher than recommended doses for non-saline rice fields were effective in controlling Cyperus iria, Echinochloa colona (salt-tolerant) and Jussiaea linifolia but showed in light injury in rice plants grown in non-saline soils. These higher doses of herbicides recorded severe crop injury under saline conditions indicating their differential efficacy from normal non-saline conditions. Treatments including Pretilachlor (0.375kg a.i. ha(-1)), Propanil + Thiobencarb (0.9 + 1.8 kg ai/ha), Bensulfuron + MCPA (0.06 + 0.1 kg a.i. ha(-1)) and Pretilachlor (0.50 kg a.i. ha(-1)) remained superior in terms of weed control and grain yield production under all salinitylevels at TanjungKarang, Malaysia. It is concluded that herbicides respond differently under saline conditions and optimization of their doses potentially prevent herbicidal injury in rice plants.