SUMMARY : Field experiment was conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam during Late Pishanam season (November- March) of 2016 - 2017 to evolve suitable weed management practices for direct sown drum seeded rice in Thamirabarani command area. Twelve weed management treatments were tested in Randomized Block Design replicated thrice. Broad leaved weeds were found to be the predominant category followed by grasses and sedges. All the weed control treatments significantly reduced the density and dry weight of weeds which resulted in significantly higher growth and yield of rice over unweeded control. Though the weed free check yielded significantly higher than other treatments, but it fetched higher cost of cultivation and non-availability of labourers during peak season. The results revealed that the application of pretilachlor @ 750 g a.i. ha -1 on 8 DAS as PE + bispyribac sodium @ 25 g a.i. ha -1 on 30 DAS as POE not only significantly reduced density and dry weight of weeds but also increased the grain yield of rice. How to cite this article : Arivukodi, S. and Velayutham, A. (2017). Evolving suitable weed management practices for direct sown drum seeded rice in Thamirabarani command area. Agric. Update, 12(TECHSEAR-2) : 567-571; DOI: 10.15740/HAS/AU/12.TECHSEAR(2)2017/567-571. Evolving suitable weed management practices for direct sown drum seeded rice in Thamirabarani command area S. ARIVUKODI AND A.VELAYUTHAM HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE ARTICLE CHRONICLE : Received : 12.07.2017; Accepted : 25.07.2017 RESEARCH ARTICLE : KEY WORDS : Weed management, Direct-seeded rice, Drum seeder, Herbicides Agriculture Update e ISSN-0976-6847 Visit us : www.researchjournal.co.in A U Author for correspondence : S. ARIVUKODI Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, COIMBATORE (T.N.) INDIA See end of the article for authors’ affiliations BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important and extensively cultivated food crop and feeds more than half of the world’s population. The slogan “Rice is life” is most appropriate for India; as this crop plays a vital role in our national food security and is a means of livelihood for millions of rural households. Rice is one of the major contributors to the success by contributing approximately 43 per cent of total food grain production of India (Upendra et al., 2013). Transplanting rice is the traditional system of rice crop establishment and it is in vogue in many rice growing areas. Water resources, both at surface and underground, are shrinking and water may become a limiting factor in future. Due to urbanization and industrialization in our country, shortage of specialized labour for transplanting is becoming a major constraint to many rice growers for the timely transplanting and maintaining the required plant population to achieve higher productivity (Riaz et al., 2007). Volume 12 | TECHSEAR-2 | 2017 | 567-571 DOI: 10.15740/HAS/AU/12.TECHSEAR(2)2017/567-571