Explain various methods of weed control.

The various methods of weed control are:

(i) Mechanical methods - These include uprooting, weeding with trowel or khurpi, hand hoeing, intercultural, ploughing, burning and flooding.

(ii) Cultural methods - This includes the proper bed preparation, timely sowing of crops, intercropping and crop rotation.

(iii) Chemical methods - Herbicides and weedicides are sprayed on weeds to destroy weeds like - 2, 4 - D.

(iv) Biological methods - Biological method of weed control involves the deliberate use of insects or some other organisms which consume and specifically destroy the weed plants. Example - Opuntia can be controlled by using cochineal insects in Maharashtra.