Controlled-release herbicide formulations in rice and rice-fish culture

There is an increasing trends of the need for technological innovations in weed control in food crops, mainly rice crops, to meet the demand of the population growth in developing countries. The noval technique in weed control in particular and pest management in general must also comply with the effort to maintain the sustainable support of all production components. The development of slow-release formulation technique of herbicides in an effort to improve crop productivity, through the herbicide efficacy, while also concerned with a possible external impacts, e.g. residue in soil, fish and grains. This paper is to conclude the result of a study of the use of thiobencarb and butachlor in rice-fish culture, with a result that there were some residues of these herbicide in the soil and fish but not in the rice grain. Thiobencarb showed a less risk in contaminating the soil or leaving residues in fish compared to butachlor. Rice production (5.35 tons/ha) is still the highest in handweeding treatments, 7 and 21 days after transplanting, in which weeds may reduce almost 60% of the yield. A combination of 0.75 kg/ha of thiobencarb slow-release formulations with 0.75 kg/ha commercial product gave a relatively high rice yield of 4.93 tons/ha. (author). 6 refs, 3 figs, 3 tabs