Effect of Various Weeds Management Practices on Yield and Yield Components of Tef ( Eragrostis tef ( Zucc. ) Trotter) in Buno Bedele Zone

The effect of weed is one of the important limiting factors for crop growth and productivity in agricultural crop production. Weeds compete with tef for nutrients, soil moisture, sunlight and space. The magnitude of losses would depend upon the type of weeds and duration of competition with the crops. Mechanical and cultural methods sometimes do not work due to fact that there is a morphological similarity of some major weeds of the crops. Combining cultural methods, pre- or post-emergence application of herbicides and hand weeding has been found to be effective and economical. Then; there should be a little information on the “Effect of various Weeds management practices on yield and yield components of Tef”. Hence, this study was conducted in Buno Bedele zone (Gachi district) and Bedele (BeARC, Ilke sub-site) district; Southwestern Oromia to evaluate effectiveness of weed management practices on weeds, and growth, yield and yield components of tef and to determine optimum rates of herbicides, and their combination with hand weeding and hoeing for weed management in tef at Southwestern Oromia. The experiment was carried out in randomized completely block design (RCBD) with three replications. A total of ten weed control treatments were evaluated. The two years data (2023 and 2024) were noticed highly significant difference on the assessed parameters of weed, Yield and yield components of tef. The highest grain yield, Gross return and net return was obtained from Pallas 45 OD 0.5lt ha -1 + HW @ 40 DAS. Finally; using Pallas 45 OD 0.5lt ha -1 + HW @ 40 DAS is an economical and/or recommendable for tef production.