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Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a principal source of food for more than half of the world population, especially in South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. Elsewhere, it represents a high‐value commodity crop. Change in the method of crop establishment from traditional manual transplanting of seedlings to direct‐seeding has occurred in many Asian countries in the last two decades in response to rising production costs, especially for labor and water. Direct‐seeding of rice (DSR) may involve sowing pregerminated seed onto a puddled soil surface (wet‐seeding) or into shallow standing water (water‐seeding), or dry seed into a prepared seedbed (dry‐seeding). In Europe, Australia, and the United States, direct‐seeding is highly mechanized. The risk of crop yield loss due to competition from weeds by all seeding methods is higher than for transplanted rice because of the absence of the size differential between the …