Zenebech Bizualewa* and Getahun Alemayehub
Maize is the most highly distributed cereal in the World and it is multipurpose crop (used as human food, animals and poultry feed, and in industrial products. In spite of the huge importance of maize, its productivity is quite low (the yield of maize obtained in Ethiopia is far below expectation) due to numerous factors which include weed infestation. Weed is one the most important yield limiting factor. The present study was initiated to determine the weed flora, prevalence, distribution and frequency of weed in the surveyed crop fields. The Survey was conducted at irrigated maize production area of Gode and Kelafo districts, Shebelle zone, Ethiopia, during 2022 cropping seasons. The districts were purposefully selected based on cropping system where the maize is major crop. The assessment was done using weed counting for important points related to weed and quadrate with a size of 1×1 m was used. The weed survey conducted at the flowering stage of the crop and the data was analyzed via quantitative measures like weed frequency, field uniformity, weed density, weed dominance, and weed abundance. The result showed a total of twenty seven weed species that were collected and recorded in 15 families. From the 15 families Asteraceae family had the highest number of weed species followed by Chenopodiaceae and Gramineae were by far the richest weed species and accounted together (48.14 %) of the entire flora of the study area. 27 different weed species including 23 annuals, 1 binnial and 3 perennials which comprised of 20 broad leaf weeds, 4 types of grass, and 3 sedges by habitat were identified in gode and kelafo maize growing sites of somale regione. ethiopia. The large majority of from 27 weed species were broad leaved weeds. The highest weed frequency value (100%), field uniformity (66), weed dominance (10.43%) and weed density (9.17 plants/m2) was recorded by Xanthium strumarium. The most frequent, abundant and dominant weed species in Gode and Kelafo districts, Shebele zone, Somali region in Eastern Ethiopia were Xanthium strumarium, Tussilago farfara, Cyperus assimilis, Cyperus esculentus and Avena fatua. Therefore, maize growers should be used sound and sustainable weed management practices including cultural, chemical, and integrated weed management approaches, and further weed management studies should be conducted. Similarity indices of weed communities in different locations were also determined to be >60% across all locations sampled.
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