Cymbopogon nardus is an invasive grass weed in the grazing lands of Uganda affecting growth of desirable species and impeding movement of livestock. Farmers have for long used manual removal with a hand hoe to control...Cymbopogon nardus is an invasive grass weed in the grazing lands of Uganda affecting growth of desirable species and impeding movement of livestock. Farmers have for long used manual removal with a hand hoe to control the weed to allow growth of palatable species. In order to reduce on the drudgery associated with the hand hoe, a trial was set up to evaluate removal with a hand hoe, use of fire and spraying the weed with glyphosate herbicide to control Cymbopogon nardus. Eight treatments associated with the different control strategies were replicated on four sites in the land use system. Both manual removal with a hand hoe and spraying with glyphosate herbicide were effective in controlling Cymbopogon nardus with 95% and 92% kill of Cymbopogon tussocks, respectively. The differences between the two control methods were not significant. Plant species biodiversity recovery was faster in the manually controlled plots than in those sprayed with glyphosate, but the number of species was not significantly different. The frequency of occurrence of species was however significantly different with manually controlled plots registering a higher frequency of the species. Fire had no effect as a control strategy, but instead increased the number of tussocks, growth vigour of the re-growth, flowering and hence seed setting. After three seasons, no significant difference was observed in species biodiversity between manual and herbicide control. These results suggest that herbicides could effectively be used to control Cymbopogon nardus to cut on costs and avoid the drudgery normally associated with manual control.展开更多
文摘Cymbopogon nardus is an invasive grass weed in the grazing lands of Uganda affecting growth of desirable species and impeding movement of livestock. Farmers have for long used manual removal with a hand hoe to control the weed to allow growth of palatable species. In order to reduce on the drudgery associated with the hand hoe, a trial was set up to evaluate removal with a hand hoe, use of fire and spraying the weed with glyphosate herbicide to control Cymbopogon nardus. Eight treatments associated with the different control strategies were replicated on four sites in the land use system. Both manual removal with a hand hoe and spraying with glyphosate herbicide were effective in controlling Cymbopogon nardus with 95% and 92% kill of Cymbopogon tussocks, respectively. The differences between the two control methods were not significant. Plant species biodiversity recovery was faster in the manually controlled plots than in those sprayed with glyphosate, but the number of species was not significantly different. The frequency of occurrence of species was however significantly different with manually controlled plots registering a higher frequency of the species. Fire had no effect as a control strategy, but instead increased the number of tussocks, growth vigour of the re-growth, flowering and hence seed setting. After three seasons, no significant difference was observed in species biodiversity between manual and herbicide control. These results suggest that herbicides could effectively be used to control Cymbopogon nardus to cut on costs and avoid the drudgery normally associated with manual control.
