2019 Volume 12 Issue 2 Pages 92-99
In the inland valleys of Ghana, where a great deal of research and development towards boosting rice production is being promoted, the low ratio of irrigated rice fields and the aging of existing irrigation facilities pose problems for rice production. In developing reinforcement technology, using cover plants for irrigation facilities in paddy fields, it is a requisite to establish control methods against the overgrowth and invasion of introduced-plant communities. Some expriments on slashing by cutlass, focusing on weed suppression and eradication methods and making it easier for farmers to practice this themselves, were conducted. There was no difference in herbicidal effects between treatments with or without such slashing before herbicide application with 200mL m-2 in a 50-time dilution of glyphosate, propanil and butachlor. An application of these three herbicides suppressed only the parts of the following three test plants above ground from 2 weeks to 4 months, so falling short of eradicating them completely. It was found that by putting the test plants in a flooded environment for two months immediately after slashing, Cynodon dactylon was unable to regrow healthily within 2 weeks, and both Chrysopogon aciculatus and Stenotaphrum secundatum were able to be eradicated all together. Moreover, slashing by cutlass is effective as a weed control technology if the plant height was at 1 cm. In addition, the eradication of these plants is possible by this method several times on the ground surface within 2 months of establishment.
