Effect of Selected Weed Management Practices on the Growth and Yield Components of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana) in Western Region of Kenya

Finger millet (Elusine coracana) accounts for 8% of the total area and 11% production worldwide. It is grown on over 4 million ha globally, mainly food purposes. Millions people in dry lands Central East Africa, South India depend finger as an important source to them (CGIAR, 2001). one most neglected underutilized crops. Additionally, crop has received limited research attention compared wheat, rice, maize (FAO, 2011). Therefore, challenges such those caused by weeds like goose grass Elusine indica remain at large. Manual weeding commonly employed weed control method production, but expensive labour intensive. The current study was set evaluate influence management practices growth yield components. experiment laid out a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates. plots measured 2 2m border width 1m. treatments included Pendimethalin, Dimethyl amine, Metolachlor, Metribuzin, Atrazine (at rates each 1.0, 1.5 2.0 l/ha), No Hand weeding. Data collected number species, biomass, basal tillers, herbicide phytotoxicity, heights, panicles, weight un-threshed threshed grains 1000 grain weight. analyzed using one-way ANOVA GenStat version 15.1. Application Pendimethalin L/ha Active Ingredient (AI), resulted optimal least phytotoxicity. Results also indicated that height significantly (p<0.001) higher where herbicides were applied. Lower biomass positively correlated height, more high unthreshed weights 2,4D 1.5L 2.0L taller plants 33.00 cm, than other methods. under L gave highest 86 panicles while Pendimethalin1.5L methods control, had all treatments. seed mass across averaged 2.31 g untreated average 1.54 g. Weed pre emergence increased yields millet.