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    June issue of volume 54 of IJWS Year 2022 published on ISWS website     ISWS 3rd International Weed Conference (20-23 December, 2022), AAU, Venue: Anand, Gujarat, INDIA     March issue of volume 54 of IJWS Year 2022 published on ISWS website     ISWS Newsletter (July to December 2021)     ISWS National Training (13 to 18 December 2021)

3rd International Weed Conference

"20-23 December, 2022
Venue: Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat, INDIA

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Welcome to the ISWS
Dr. Baldev Ram, Kota (LM-1415)
Dr. Vikash Kumar, Sardarkrushinagar (LM-1414)
Dr. SUDHIR KUMAR RAJPOOT, Varanasi (LM-1413)
Dr. Vijayakumar S, CUTTACK (LM-1386)
Mr. Jahar Ghosh, Barrackpore (LM-1412)
Dr. SHYAMASHREE ROY, Dakshin Dinajpur (LM-1411)
Dr. JEYASRINIVAS RAMASAMY, 625562 (LM-1410)
Dr. S.N.MALLESWARI SADHINENI, ANANTAPUR (LM-1409)
Dr. VINAY PATEL, WAGHAI (LM-1408)
Dr. Ajay Patel, WAGHAI (LM-1407)
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Biennial Conference 2020 at Goa
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About Society

Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS) was established in 1968 coinciding with the green revolution in the country. Dr. R.S. Choudhry of Varansi (Uttar Pradesh) was the first president and Dr. M.K. Moolani of Hisar (Haryana) was the first Secretary of the society. The Society started publishing its journal ‘Indian Journal of Weed Science’ from 1969. Initially the Head Quarter of the Society was in Hisar which moved to Bangalore for nearly a decade (1980-1992). The HQ of the society was again shifted to Hisar and remained there till 2005. National Research Centre for Weed Science (now named as Directoratre of Weed Science Research) was established in 1989 at Jabalpur. Subsequently, with the strengthening of NRCWS (DWSR), the HQ of the society was finally shifted at Jabalpur in 2006. The society has been registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960 with registration No. SOR/BLU/DR/518/08-09. The official emblem of the society was designed by Dr. Bibhas Ray in 1977, the then Chief Agronomist of Farm Chemical Ltd, New Delhi.

This logo appeared in Dec 1977 issue of the journal Vol IX No 2, 1977 on page 159. First ISWS Newsletter was also brought out by Dr Ray as Newsletter editor.

  • To disseminate knowledge of weed management in its widest perspective.
  • To encourage research education and extension in the scientific and practical aspects of weed management.
  • To provide suitable forum such as, national & international symposia/seminars to diffuse scientific knowledge among scientists and to facilitate personal contact between members.
  • To publish Journals, bulletin reports, books, newsletters, documentary etc. for the advancement of the aims of the society.
  • To do and perform all other acts, matters, deeds and things that may assist in conduct to or be necessary for the fulfillment of the above mentioned objections for the purpose of the Society.
  • To study long term cumulative residue effects, if any, of herbicides and to standardize bioassay technique for estimating herbicides residue in soil, plant and water system.
  • To design and develop weed control tools and implements.

President’s Message

Date: 1/01/2022

Dear Honorable Members of the ISWS

Greetings!!!.

“Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year, 2022”. !!!

The year 2021 was full of challenges for all of us. We have witnessed the world’s worst second wave of Covid-19 and the loss of lives of dear ones. I pray the Almighty for grant of peace to the eternal souls who have lost their lives during the pandemic. In spite of persistent Covid-19 threat, we have started to concentrate in our work with the regular opening of research institutions in the country. I am sure, you all have taken both the doses of vaccines to fight against this devastated disease effectively. I appeal to all of my elder colleagues to go for booster dose immediately, if it has not been taken yet.

In the year 2021, we started a series of webinars almost every month on different current topics on weed science by the eminent weed scientists of India and abroad to uplift the current knowledge of the members especially younger ones. This series of webinars received very warm response from the members, which can be judged by large number of participations in each of such webinars. On the demand of members, we also organized one online 6 days training course on ‘Advances in weed management for sustainable agriculture’ during 13-18 December, 2021, which was also attended by large number of participants from all over India. You will also be delighted to know that more than 76 new colleagues have joined the Society during the period of 2021. I welcome all of them in the Society. We have also done a lot of improvement in the website of ISWS for its easy access and to retrieve the information with single click. I request all of you to visit the ISWS website regularly to get updates and to access the Indian Journal of Weed Science.

You will be happy to learn that ISWS in collaboration with Anand Agricultural University, Anand (Gujarat) and ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research is organizing 3rd International Weed Conference (3rd IWC) during 20-23 December, 2022 at Anand. This venue is kept in view of its proximity with the world tallest statute “Statue of Unity”. We are exploring the possibility to organize a trip to this point for the participants to witness the statue and scenic beauty of the area. I invite all of you to participate in this conference and request you to lock the dates.

Please take utmost care of yourself and your family.

Wish you all the best in your endeavor in weed science.


Sushil Kumar

President, ISWS

Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS)
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (2021-22 to 2022-23)

REGD. NO. SOR/BLU/DR/518/08-09 (Old REGD. NO. 183,80-81)

Councilors

Constitution


Registered office

All India Co-ordinated Research Programme on Weed Control (ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research Centre : Main Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Hebbal, Bangalore-560 024

Headquarter

ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Maharajpur, Adhartal, Jabalpur – 482 004, (Madhya Pradesh) INDIA

Memorandum of Society

1. The Society shall be known as "Indian Society of Weed Science
2. Regd. Office: The office of the society shall be located at All India Co-ordinated Research Programme on Weed Control, Main Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Hebbal, Bangalore-560 024.
3. Objectives:
  • To disseminate knowledge of weed management in its widest perspective.

  • To encourage research education and extension in the scientific and practical aspects of weed management.

  • To provide suitable forum such as, national & international symposia/seminars to diffuse scientific knowledge among scientists and to facilitate personal contact between members.

  • To publish Journals, bulletin reports, books, newsletters, documentary etc. for the advancement of the aims of the society.

  • To do and perform all other acts, matters, deeds and things that may assist in conduct to or be necessary for the fulfillment of the above mentioned objections for the purpose of the Society.


RULES AND REGULATIONS

Clause - I

Membership:

Scientists engaged in teaching / research / extension in weed science shall be admitted as members after they pay the prescribed fee (subject to revision). They shall be entitled to receive the journal of the Society free of charge from the year from which subscription is paid. They will have right to hold an office of the Society provided they have been members (Ordinary or Life members) for a minimum period of two years prior to the year of election. The Society shall not discriminate members on the basis of their caste, creed or religion.

Types of membership:

  • Life member: - Scientists/persons on payment of a sum equal to the value of 15 years annual subscription at the current rate (subject to revision by the Executive Council) may be enrolled as life members. The life members shall enjoy all the privileges of the member. They shall be exempted from the payment of annual subscription. They shall however, not be entitled for back issues of the Journal of the Society published before enrolment.

  • Associate members: - Persons who do not possess basic degree in agriculture or science shall be enrolled as Associate Members only on payment of sum equal to that charged as subscription from members. They shall enjoy all the privileges of the member except right to vote at meetings/elections or to hold as Office-bearer.

  • Subsisting member: - Institutions or Organizations in India and abroad payment of Rs.1,00,000/- to US$ 20,000 or they will be entitled to receive the Journals of the Society free of charge but shall not enjoy voting right or rights to hold office of the Society.


Clause - II.

Withdrawal / Discontinuance / Expulsion of members:

  • A member may withdraw from the Society signifying his / her wish to do so in a letter addressed to the Secretary. He or she shall not be entitled to refund of any fee paid by him / her. Any member so resigning may however re-apply for admission.

  • Members who do not pay their annual subscription by 31st December shall cease to be the member of the Society. They have to re-apply for their membership and will not be entitled for the issues of the journal for the concerned year published prior to date of enrolment. A request for the back issue of the journal, when payment of the membership is delayed beyond 31st of December can however, be made to the Executive Council, which if considered in the interest of the Society may accept such request.

  • Any member indulging in activities against the interest of the Society or the activities which block the functioning of the Society shall discontinue being a member of the Society. The Executive Council will discuss such cases on merit and in case the majority decision is for expelling members, it will refer the matter to the General Body Meetings, which may be convened for this purpose, if necessary. In case the matter is urgent and the General Body Meeting is likely to be delayed, the Executive Council may resort to opinion poll among the members of the Society through secret postal ballot. The members who do not communicate their negative opinion through ballot will be considered to have agreed to the proposal of the Executive. The expulsion will be affected if three fourth or more of the members on roll on the date of the opinion poll vote for it. The General Body can expel a member from the Society for a fixed term of two or more years or the entire life period, if it finds that the damage caused by the member to the Society is irreparable. The expulsion orders by the General Body will also apply to the life members, who, however, will continue to receive the journal of the Society free of charge. The expelled members/life members will have neither right to vote nor they can contest for any office of the Society.


Clause - III.

Subscription:

  • The subscription rates, which may be revised by the Executive Council from time to time, will apply for one calendar year (January to December).

  • The current (2015) subscription rates are:

  • Individual Membership
    Annual : Rs. 500/- (India) US$ 60.00 (Foreign)
    Life : Rs. 6000/- (India) US$ 1000.00 (Foreign)
    Libraries / Institutions: Rs.5000/- (India); US$ 500 (Foreign) by Air Mail. 10% rebate will be allowed to booksellers and book agencies. The rates for other publications will be fixed by the Executive Council.

Clause - IV.

The Executive Council

  • The administration, direction and management of the affairs of the Society shall be entrusted to the Executive Council consisting of the President (1), Vice-President (2), Secretary (1), Joint Secretary (2), Treasurer (1) and Chief Editor. The immediate past president and secretary shall be ex-officio members of the Executive Council of the Society with voting rights.
  • The meetings of the Executive Council will be presided by the President / Vice-President.
  • The Secretary shall have overall responsibility for the conduct of the affairs of the Society under the directives of the Executive Council. He shall convene the meetings of the Executive Council, General Body Meetings and shall be responsible for recording of their proceedings. The Jt. Secretary shall generally help the Secretary in his work and conduct the work of the Secretary other than those relating to finance during his absence from H.Q.
  • The Secretary in consultation with President and/or Vice president shall have powers to appoint or terminate services of the paid employees of ISWS working at the H.Q.
  • The Treasurer in consultation with the Secretary shall be responsible for the financial affairs of the Society. He shall submit to the Council a statement of the accounts of the Society for each year.

Clause - V.

Powers of office-bearers

    Presidential powers

  • To preside over all General Body meetings and meetings of the E.C.
  • To accept deposits and contributions.

    • Powers of Vice-President.

  • To perform the duties of the President in his absence and when such powers are delegated to him in writing

    • Powers of Secretary

  • To operate banks of the society within the limits prescribed by the E.C.
    To summon and attend all General Body meetings and of the Executive Council meetings.
    To record proceedings of such meetings, get them signed by the President and other office-bearers.
    To carry on correspondence of society, maintain its book of accounts and registers and to arrange for their safety.
    To receive deposits and contribution in accordance with the regulations of the EC.
    To prepare annual statements or any statements or reports of statements called for by the E.C.
    Correspondence with Registrar of Societies.
    To Provide TA/DA to EC Members/other members invitee as per decision of E.C.

    • Powers of Treasurer

  • To operate bank accounts of the Society along with secretary.
    To receive and acknowledge the amounts on behalf of the Society and receive receipts.
    To keep accurate accounts and up-to-date records thereof and to get them audited annually by qualified person to be appointed by the Executive council.
    To be responsible for the safe custody of other assets of the Society.
    To Provide TA/DA to EC Members/other members invitee asf per decision of E.C.

Clause - VI.

The Editorial Board

  • The Executive Council will appoint the Chief Editor and the other members of the Editorial Board for tenure of two years. However, any additions or deletions in the Editorial Board may be made by the Executive Council as and when deemed necessary.
  • There is no tenure limit on the member of the Editorial Board and members may continue in the Editorial Board for as many years as the Executive Council may consider it appropriate. Thus while the Executive Council members change, the members of the Editorial Board may continue to hold the office provided the current Executive Council considers it desirable.
  • The new Executive Council after biennial election shall have the powers to reconstitute the Editorial Board including Chief Editor. The Executive shall also have powers to reconstitute the Editorial Board including Chief Editor, if desired, at any time during the term of Executive  council.
  • Once appointed the Chief Editor will also be a member of the Executive Council.

Clause - VII.

Election of the office-bearers

  • The members of the Executive Council (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Jt. Secretary, Treasurer) will be elected by the secret ballot paper for a tenure of two calendar years. In the case of unavoidable delays in the elections the Executive Council will continue to function until new Executive Council takes over but in no case more than one year after the expiry of the term. Office bearers shall be from life members.
  • Eminent scientists/persons who can provide dynamic leadership to the Society can be chosen as Patron of the Society in its General Body Meeting. The position is not to be filled by the election but by the general consensus in the General Body meeting. Once chosen, the patron will be the member of the Executive Council However, he will have no voting right but can preside over Executive Council Meetings/General Body Meetings. If needed, he will provide guidance. In the case of crisis, if any, the Patron will have the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Society including the conduct of the Election.
  • The Registered office of the Society shall be at Bangalore and Headquarter will be at Directorate of Weed Science Research, Jabalpur. The Secretary and the Treasurer shall be persons staying at the H.Q. of the Society.
  • No member will hold the same post of office for more than two consecutive terms. He may, however hold any other office(s), if elected.
  • The voters list in year of election will be made by the Secretary before the election and will include members who have paid membership dues in that year. Thus, persons who are  annual members for a period of two years and life members only will be entitled to vote. In case of life members, only those will have rights to vote who have paid all the membership dues in the preceding year of election.
  • The Executive Council will appoint a Returning Officer for the Society elections. The Returning Officer shall be a non-contesting member.
  • Before commencement of the election, all the members in the voters list will be asked by the Secretary in consultation with the Returning Officer to send their nominations to the Returning Officer by a date fixed by the Returning Officer. The nominations can be proposed and seconded by voter members only.
  • The returning Officer will scrutinize the nominations and he will communicate the proposed names for various offices along with their addresses to the contestants for their consent. The names of the members' communicating/ conveying their willingness for contesting elections will be passed onto the Secretary for getting the ballot papers printed. The Returning Officer will dispatch the ballot papers having names and addresses of the contesting candidates duly numbered and signed. The ballot papers must be sent back by the members to the Returning Officer by the fixed date indicated on the ballot paper.
  • The ballots will be counted by the Returning Officer and the results will be communicated to the Secretary, who will inform the members directly through emails or putting on the web site or  through forthcoming publication in the journal of the Society.
  • Unless elections are delayed, the elected new Executive Council will take charge in April coincided with financial year.
  • For the positions, the nominations are not received, the Executive Council will have option to elect by a majority of vote by show of hands.

Clause - VIII.

Meeting of the Council

  • (a) The Executive Council shall normally meet at least once in six months and more often, if necessary and shall review the financial position of the Society, the progress made in the publication and other activities of the Society and such other matter as the Council is empowered to deal with under the rules.
  • The Secretary, in consultation with the President, shall convene meetings of the Council and interrelate to all the members of the Council, the date, place and time of the meeting and the agenda of the subjects to be discussed. Normally the EC meeting will be held at ISWS HQ but may also be held at other places as per common decison of EC members
  • A minimum of 50 per cent of the members of the Council shall form a quorum.
  • The President, or in his absence, the Vice-President shall take the Chair. In the absence of the President or of the vice-president, the members of the Council shall elect the Chairman.
  • The ordinary method of voting shall be by show of hands, but the votes shall be taken by ballot on a motion to this effect being duly carried.
  • The Chairman shall be entitled to vote with other members of the Council and when the votes are equal, he shall have a second, i.e., a casting vote.
  • Minutes of proceedings of every meeting of the Council shall be recorded during its progress by the Secretary only.
  • A copy of the minutes of each meeting of the Council shall be circulated to the members of the Council and placed before the next meeting of the Council for confirmation.
  • The Council may constitute Committee from amongst their own body or from among the members of the Society for the consideration of any special subjects.
  • Committees shall report to the Council on all matters referred to them, producing such minutes, if called for. Committees shall have their own Chairman and Secretary, their duties etc. in other respects may be defined by the Council which may also dissolve such Committees, if necessary.

Clause - IX.

General Body Meeting

    General Body Meetings of the Society shall be of two type viz., Biennial General Body Meeting and Extra Ordinary General Body Meeting.

  • Normally,  Biennial General Body Meeting of the Society shall be held with the Biennial Conference under the following rules:
  • The Biennial General Body Meeting of the Society shall be held at a University or an institution on invitation or at the Head Quarters conceded with Biennial conference/symposium. This should have the concurrence of the institution or the university concerned so as to provide the facilities for holding the meeting and also the boarding and lodging for the members of the Society and invitees attending the session. On receiving the suggestion, the Council will take such steps as may be considered necessary.
  • Notice of the meeting, the date, hour and place shall be given to all the members immediately after the venue and dates are fixed.
  • Scientific papers and communications received from the Council shall be read in the order determined by the Council.

  • The order of business at the Biennial General Body Meeting of the Society shall be as follows: 1.  A minimum of 10% of ordinary/ life members will form the quorum for General Body Meeting.
    2. The Secretary shall present the Council's report on the activities of the Society during the preceding year.
    3. The Treasurer of the Society will present the statement of accounts.
    4. The points will be discussed as per agenda prepared by the Secretary.
    5. Any other point with the permission of the chair

    • Extra-ordinary General Body Meetings: The following rules shall be applicable

  • Such meetings shall be convened by a majority decision of the Executive Council and shall be convened by the President when called upon to do so by requisition signed by not less than 10 per cent of the total strength of members/life members and stating the business to be transacted there at.
  • Notice of the date, hour and place of the meeting and of the special business to be transacted there shall be given to all members / life members, at least fifteen days before the date of meeting.
  • No business other than that included in the notice shall be transacted at such meetings, nor shall any non member be permitted to be present.

Clause - X.

Funds and accounts

  • The funds of the Society shall consist of
  • (1) Annual subscription of members
    (2) Life membership fee
    (3) Donations
    (4) Grants-in-aid from governments, institutions, societies or individuals interested in the work of the Society
    (5) Subscriptions to the journal of the Society and sale proceeds of the publications
    (6) Charges for publishing advertisements in the publications of the Society and
    (7) Other sources as determined by the Council
  • The accounts and vouchers for receipts and payments of the Society shall be subject to examination by the Executive Council any time and shall be subject to annual audit if decided by EC or General body by an internal auditor, as well as, by a chartered accountant. The Annual Statement of Accounts shall, after audit, be printed in the report of the Council to the Society.
  • All securities and money which are the property of the Society, shall be lodged for safe custody in the name of the Society in such bank or banks as may be approved by the Council for the purpose. Executive Council may also make rules for fixing the limit for the cash to be kept with the Treasurer, the imprest advance that may be given to the Secretary or Jt. Secretary etc.
  • The Secretary and the Treasurer will ordinarily jointly operate the bank account of the Society and will deal in all Govt. Securities. In case of necessity, any of two i.e.,President, Secretary and Treasurer may operate the bank account.
  • The Executive Council is empowered to incur necessary expenditure for publication and other activities of the Society, for maintaining an office and necessary staff etc., the report of the Internal Auditor shall be placed before the Executive Council Meeting. The Executive Council is also empowered to appoint a Chartered Accountant on such remuneration as may be fixed by them for auditing the accounts of the Society once a year.
  • The Cash Book/ and account may be verified quarterly by one of the nominated members from the Executive Council preferably other than the present Secretary and Treasurer. President of the Society may also verify the Cash Book for effective check on expenditure and flow of funds.
  • The annual accounts of the Society shall be audited by a qualified chartered accountant and submitted to the competent authorities and will be presented in General body meeting.

Clause - XI.

Accounting year

  • The accounting year of the Society shall be the financial year i.e., from 1st of April to 31st  March.

Clause - XII.

  • Working hours for the paid employee of society shall be from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. with usual lunch break between 1.30 p.m. to 2.00 p.m. on all working days.

Clause - XIII.

Publications

  • The Executive Council shall be empowered to make necessary rules for publishing the Journals and bringing out any other publications of the Society e.g., selecting the printers and publishers, appointing referees to scrutinize scientific papers received for publication, fixing rates for advertisements in the publications of the Society, fixing the charges payable for the reprints, fixing the rates for sale of back issues of Journal, supply of free copies of Society's publication either on exchange or without exchange etc.

Clause - XIV.

Amendments and alterations in the rules

  • Proposals for additions, deletions or alterations in the existing rules maybe placed before the Biennial General Body Meeting or an Extraordinary General Body Meeting of the Society specially called for the purpose.
  • Proposals for such modifications in the existing rules from Life Members of the Society shall be sent to the Secretary at least six weeks before the Biennial or Extraordinary General Body Meeting of the Society.
  • Any amendment to the above proposed modifications shall be sent by Associate Members and Life members to the Secretary at least a fortnight before the Biennial or Extra-ordinary General Body Meeting of the Society.
  • The proposals together with any amendments shall be brought before the Biennial or Extraordinary General Body Meeting of the Society together with remarks of the Council, if any, and if accepted by a two-third majority of the Members and Life Members present and voting at such meeting.
  • All alterations and amendments shall be carried out in tune with the Memorandum of the Institution and no amendment shall be undertaken which may prove redundant to the provisions.

Clause - XV.

Legal suits by and against the society.

  • The Society may sue or be sued in the name of the President/Vice-President/Secretary or any other person or persons authorized by the Executive Council of the Society after passing a resolution to this effect in accordance with Rules and Regulations. In case of other state, the suit may be filed by member as appointed by EC on behalf the society.

Clause - XVI.

Awards

  • To honour the members in recognition of their professional leadership, professional outstanding contributions and service to the ISWS., the provison of awards have been kept. The President in consultation of Executive Council shall appoint a committee comprising 2-3eminent members for award finalization by inviting the biodata of all those being considered for these awards. The Secretary will act as a member secretary in this committee. The committee shall submit the recommendations to the Executive Council of ISWS before the commencement of biennial conference for its approval. The ISWS may also elect individuals (non-members) as fellows who in its opinion have rendered conspicuous service to the cause of weed science, provided that not more than one person shall be so selected in anyone year. Executive Committee may also institute other awards as deemed fit. President, vice-presidents, Secretary, Joint secretary and Treasurer and members of the award selection committee will not be able to be considered for any award of the society during their tenure. Application may be invited from the interested members for the  following awards except Life time achievement award:
  • ISWS Life Time Achievement Award (two): This award will be given in recognition of the outstanding work done by a retired scientist in the field of weed science during his/her life time (memento and citation). (views from members will be invited for suitable name for this award).
  • ISWS Gold Medals (two) For life members in recognition of their out standing professional leadership and contribution in weed science. Only those members will be qulified to consider this award who have receivd fellow or reccognition award of the societys in the past (no age limit, Gold Medal and citation)
  • ISWS Fellows: Life Members for their significant contribution in the field of weed science (no age limit, memento and citation: 6 number ( only one may be from Industry) 
  • ISWS Best Ph.D Thesis Award (One) : This award is for the students who worked on a weed problem for obtaining Ph.D degree during preceding two years of ISWS biennial conference (memento and citation).
  • ISWS Young Scientist Award (one) : This award is instituted to encourage young budding scientists in the field of weed research. Applicant should be below 35 years and should submit his/her most significant contribution in 500 words (memento and citation).
  • ISWS Best Book Award on Weed Science: (one each in Hindi and English). Book published during preceding two years of ISWS biennial conference will be considered for this award (memento and citation)

Clause - XVII.

Dissolution

  • In case of dissolution of the Society, the funds and assets of the Society shall not be transferred to the Members. The funds and assets of the Society shall be transferred to another Society with similar objectives

50 Years & Memories

Dr O.P. Gupta

Ex.- Director Research, 5/290 , SFS MIG-B, Agarwal Farm, Mansarovar, Jaipur 302020 (Rajasthan)

My memories with ISWS


It was around 1950s or so that weed management just got started to be realized as an important issue in crop production at the hands of the agronomists. The IARI New Delhi and some agricultural universities in the country took a sharp initiative and planned useful field research in weed management in different crops. (Interestingly enough, at the IARI New Delhi the weed science research was started by an Ex. Flt.Lt. of British Air Force, Dr. RD Verma. I worked my M.Sc and Ph.D under him).
Simultaneously, Dr. MK Moolani of HAU, Hisar and some other agronomists developed the idea to bring together the scientists interested in giving a fillip to weed management in the form of Weed Science Society. The objective was to bring such scientists on a common platform to discuss new ideas on the subject to provide farmers’ efficient tools of weed management. Dr. Moolani left no stone unturned to introduce the idea. I saw him thinking all the time about enlarging the weed science society, with a typical smile on his face. Finally he succeeded in forming the Indian Society of Weed Science. Starting with a couple of members, the society slowly but surely grew into its present volume. But unfortunately Dr. Moolani met with an accident abroad and died. The work was however continued with the same zeal by scientists like Dr. RS Choudhry, Dr. Chandrika Thakur, Dr. HR Arakeri, Dr. K Krishnamurthy, Dr. VM Bham, Dr. RK Malik and many others.

As a result of all out efforts, the first conference of the Indian Society of Weed Science was held in 1968 or so. Then, it never looked back and expanded its weed management guidelines from physical and chemical weed control to the biological and, more recently, to plant weeding tools, which ensured very selective weed control in field crops with non selective herbicides.

The ISWS activities have now grown so large as to organize international conferences to absorb new ideas in terms of fundamental and applied weed management research. The credit for this goes to all scientists who either toiled with some aspects of weed science in the past or are actively doing so presently. Of course, the past activities of weed scientists are memories and the present ones are the hope for the future weed management.

Dr V.S. Rao

Joint Secretary (1977-81); Vice President of ISWS (1981-1986) and Editor-in-Chief of IJWS (1986-1990); ISWS Founder Member and Lifetime Achievement Awardee (2010-11)
Author of “Principles of Weed Science”, 3 Editions; “Transgenic Herbicide Resistance in Plants”, etc. (Affiliate Faculty Member, Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, USA) Address:2464 Julliard Circe, Roseville, CA 95661, USA
E-mail: dr_vs_rao@yahoo.com

My memories with ISWS


My association with Indian Society of Weed Science began in the summer of 1968 when—following the advice of my superior Dr. Bill Wright (Assistant Director of the Rockefeller Foundation, New Delhi), I went to Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar to attend the conference organized by Dr. Moti K Moolani, Professor of Agronomy. This was attended by several scientists, basically agronomists, from universities, research institutions and pesticide industry. At that time, Dr. Moolani made a proposal and this was immediately approved by the delegates. The proposal was about instituting the Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS), with Dr. RS Choudhry (Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi) as President and Dr. Moolani himself as Secretary. This was the beginning of ISWS.

My attending the conference, now having the honour of being a 27-year old founder member with a Master's degree in Agronomy (Weed Science, 1963), was only to present the findings of the work I have been doing for 3 years as Agronomist at the Sorghum Programme of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. The work was related to screening of around 4,500 sorghum varieties collected from around the world and maintained at the germ plasm bank maintained in Rajendranagar. As the results were unique, I was encouraged by Dr. Wright to present the findings at this 1st Conference of ISWS.

I was at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, between September 1969 and October 1975. I earned Ph.D. degree in Weed Science in 1972 followed by a 3-year stint as Assistant Professor (Research) at the NY State Agricultural Experimental Station of Cornell University, Geneva, NY. In 1973, I had the pleasure of having a research article authored by me and Dr. W.B. Duke published in Indian Journal of Weed Science (IJWS) being edited by Dr. Moolani.

With patriotism in heart and unwilling to raise my 2 kids in the U.S., I returned to India in October 1975 to take up the position of Agronomist (Weed Science) at the 75-year old Tocklai Tea Research Institute, Jorhat, Assam. Later, I headed the Department of Agronomy.

My association with ISWS was renewed in January 1977 when Dr. S.V.R. Shetty, then working at ICRISAT, organized a conference of weed scientists at Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad to revive the dormant Society following Dr. Moolani's departure for a job in Nigeria. This successful meeting had enabled personal rapport between higher-placed weed scientists working in India. Prof. V.S. Mani of IARI, New Delhi was elected President of the Society. Dr. Shetty became Secretary of the Society in which capacity he remained until 1981. It was at this conference that the IJWS was revived too, with Dr. Bibhas Ray, Chief Agronomist, Farm Chemicals Ltd, becoming Editor-in-Chief. I became Joint Secretary of ISWS.

ISWS conferences were conducted annually at Coimbatore (1978; President Dr. K Krishnamurthy of UAS, Bangalore), Parbhani (1979) and Bhubaneswar (1980; President Dr. H.R. Arakeri of UAS).
Conference was organized at Bangalore in October 1981 in conjunction with the 8th Biennial Conference of the Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society (APWSS) by its President Dr. Arakeri. At this ISWS Conference, Dr. UC Upadhyay of Maharashtra Agricultural University, Parbhani, became President, while I was elected Vice President of the Society. At this conference, it was decided that the office bearers of the Society will hold their positions for 2 years.

At the personal level, I moved from Jorhat to Madras (now Chennai) in March 1982 to be the Director of FIPPAT, a plant protection and toxicology research institute, at Padappai, near Madras. I continued there till 1987. I followed it up with becoming Adviser to Dept. of Agriculture (Andhra Pradesh), Mascot Agrochemicals, Bangalore, Hoechst India, Bombay (Mumbai) and several other institutions till 1994.

In January 1983, my book “Principles of Weed Science”, 1st Edition was published by Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
The next conference was held at Banaras Hindu University in January 1984. Before this conference, myself and Dr. Upadhyay contested for the position of President of the Society. Just before this conference and after the ballots were cast, Dr. Upadhyay expressed to me personally his wish to continue as President for 2 more years. With great reluctance, I withdrew from the contest. But Dr. Bibhas Ray, the electoral officer who had already counted ballots, told me that I had more votes than Dr. Upadhyay. Thus, I lost the opportunity of becoming president of ISWS.

I could not attend the 1985 conference of the Society was held at Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat. At the 1986 conference held at Jaipur, I was chosen to be Editor-in-Chief of IJWS for 4 years. During this period, the financial position of the Society was very weak, and I had to struggle publishing the Journal. Even, I had to use my personal money to pay the publisher. Dr. S. Sankaran, President, reimbursed me the expenses in 1991.

It was at Jaipur that the Society had decided to conduct the conferences biennially. I attended the 1990 conference held at Jabalpur, under aegis of Dr. VM Bhan and VN Saraswat. That was the last ISWS conference, I attended.

I moved to USA in late 1994, first as visiting professor at Cornell, followed by management positions in herbicide industry and government of California till 2011. I have been based in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Sacramento and Roseville for over 24 years so far. In 2012, I became the Affiliated Member, Faculty of Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA.

During my second innings in the U.S., I lost contact with ISWS. But on March 28, 2012, I received an email from Dr. Sushil Kumar informing that I was chosen for Lifetime Achievement Award (LTA) of ISWS for 2010-2011. Completely surprised, I replied him saying “….I was not sure it was for me". I thought it was meant for someone else, wrongly sent to my address.” He responded immediately thus: “You are the same person who wrote the book on 'Principles of Weed Science' and you are now U.S. for over 16 years….” Although I had accepted the award, I was unable to go to India to receive it. Dr. AS Rao received the award in April 2012 for me.

This award was the beginning of my renewed association with ISWS. In July 2014, Dr. Yaduraju and Dr. AR Sharma requested me to take up the responsibility of Chief Editor of the Silver Jubilee Publication of the 25th Conference of APWSS to be held at Acharya N.G. Ranga University of Agricultural Sciences (renamed Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University) Hyderabad in October 2015. I did this job and brought out a decent book comprising advances in weed research in 21 countries of the Asian-Pacific Region. At this meeting, I suggested Drs. Yaduraju and Sharma to organize the Golden Jubilee Conference of ISWS in 2018.

As a founder member and LTA awardee, I am very mightily delighted that this historic conference is being organized at Jabalpur in November 2018.
I take this opportunity to thank all the weed scientists, past and present, with whom I had associated both professionally and personally. Some of these include: Drs. Arakeri, Shetty, Bhan, Sankaran, Bibhas Ray, Saraswat, Upadhyay, Mani, Krishnamurthy, NS Negi (Monsanto), JC Mujumdar (BASF), Yaduraju, Sharma, Sushil Kumar, and innumerable others.

Dr S.V.R. Shetty

Former Secretary, ISWS (1977-1982), Co-Founder, GRSV Consulting, Former Principal Agronomist/ Chief of Party, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT- USAID-West Africa)
Contact: Mob: + 91- 9972409234, + 91- 9535613666; | E-mail: rshetty46@gmail.com

My memories with ISWS


First, my warm congratulations to all the members and office bearers of the Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS) for celebrating the Golden Jubilee of ISWS in the historic city of Jabalpur. It is indeed a proud and fitting occasion for all of us associated with the ISWS- a relatively young society when compared to other agricultural sciences societies in India, to gather and celebrate together and reflect on the evolution of ISWS over the past fifty years and chart a vision for future years.

When the Executive Committee (EC) of ISWS requested me to write short note on my memories of the society my thoughts immediately took me to the decade of 1970s when I started my professional career in agronomy specializing in weed science with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad. That was the period of “green revolution” when Indian agriculture was in the process of transforming from traditional and less productive phase into a higher productive/high yielding agriculture primarily due to genetic and chemical interventions. That was also the period when the role of herbicides was just being understood by Indian agricultural technologists, policy makers and farmers.

The Indian Society of Weed Science, which was initiated by Prof. MK Moolani and his colleagues during late 1960s, was functional but it soon became dormant during early 1970s when Prof. Moolani left India to work in Africa. In an effort to revitalize the then dormant society, a few of us including Dr. Santi Obien (FAO Weed Science advisor to Government of India), Dr. Joshi of Central Plant Protection Institute (CPPTI, Ministry of agriculture), Dr. VS Rao of Tocklai Tea Research Station, Dr. K Krishnamurthy and Dr. KC Nag from Bangalore, Prof. VS Mani, Dr. Bibhas Ray, Dr. Majumdar and Dr. Negi from Delhi, and Dr. Mukhopadhyay from West Bengal and others decided to meet with Dr. MS Swaminathan, then the DG of ICAR and sought his guidance on how to make the society active again and take it forward. As per Dr. Swaminathan's advice, we wrote to all the agricultural universities and herbicide industries with a proposal to host a weed science conference in Hyderabad in January, 1977. The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU), Ministry of Agriculture (CPPTI), ICAR and ICRISAT, jointly organized that conference in Hyderabad, which was attended by large number of delegates (about 800) from India and abroad. The proceedings of that highly successful and bench mark conference with about 200 invitational and voluntary papers together with the lead presentations by luminaries such as Dr. Arakeri, Dr. Cummings, Vice Chancellors of some leading Agricultural Universities, policy makers, private industry leaders and a few reputed international weed scientists were published soon after the conference. The Hyderabad team with able technical guidance from Dr. Santiago Obien did an outstanding work in organizing this highly successful conference and brought all the Indian weed scientists and other stakeholders together in one platform.

At the end of this land mark Hyderabad conference, the General Body of ISWS presided by Prof. VS Mani, then Vice President of ISWS elected a new EC with Prof. Mani as President, Dr. K Krishnamurthy as Vice President, Dr. SVR Shetty as Secretary, Dr. Kondap as treasurer and Prof. VM Bhan as Editor in Chief. Personally, I greatly enjoyed working with the newly formed EC which guided the society with added vigour during the next five years. The revitalized ISWS first published the missing issues of Indian Journal of Weed Science and thereafter continued publishing it regularly. The status of ISWS as a registered society was formalized and renewed with the help of the Weed Science team based in Bangalore.

During 1977, I also had an opportunity to attend the sixth Asian Pacific Weed Science Society (APWSS) held in Jakarta, Indonesia where several international weed scientists including Dr. Plucknett, Secretary of APWSS, Dr SK De Datta of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) requested India to consider inviting the APWSS to host its next meeting in India. In 1978 the group led by Dr. Sankaran hosted the next annual Conference of ISWS in Coimbatore. During this meeting, the ISWS EC considered the APWSS invitation and decided to organize the Asian Pacific Weed Science Society Conference to be held in Bangalore in 1981.

Drs. Arakeri, Krishnamurthy and I led a group of Indian weed scientists and participated in the 7th Asian pacific Weed Science Society held at Sydney, Australia in 1979. During this meeting Dr. Arakeri also formally invited the APWSS to host the next APWSS Conference in Bangalore in 1981. The 1980 Annual meeting was organized by Dr. Upadhyay in Parbhani where a new EC, was elected with Dr. K Krishnamurthy as President and I was requested to continue as Secretary. However, soon thereafter, since I had to move to IRRI, Philippines in 1981, I could not participate actively in organizing the APWSS Conference in Bangalore. However, the Bangalore team led by Drs. Arakeri and Krishnamurthy hosted that first APWSS Conference held in India meticulously, which was indeed a grand success according to the large numbers of international delegates who had attended the conference.

I decided to relinquish the office of the Secretary, ISWS in 1982 as I moved on to work with ICRISAT- Africa as principal production agronomist in various West African countries. From then on, weed science was only a part of my wider responsibilities in production agronomy and African agricultural institution building activities. However, I continued to follow the ISWS activities keenly through my colleagues in India. I continued to be in touch with my friends and reputed weed scientists such as Drs. HS Gill and LS Brar with whom I worked very closely during my Ph.D field research at PAU Ludhiana and others including Drs. Krishnamurthy, Nag, Mukhopadhyay, Majumdar, Sankaran, Bhan, VS Rao, Ramachandra Prasad, Muniappa, Yaduraju and others. I was glad to note that the ISWS flourished under their leadership during the following years and decades. I also had an occasion to meet with some of them again during the ISWS Conference held in Bangalore in 1981 in conjunction with APWSS when the ISWS also felicitated me with a Gold Medal for my contribution to the society during its challenging revival phase.

Since my return from Africa in 2013, I have been following ISWS activities more closely and noted that the quality of the journal published by the society improved considerably. However, I was told that the society has also gone through some challenging and turbulent times again in between years, but because of the wisdom of its senior members the society is now completely settled in its headquarters in Jabalpur. I believe that Jabalpur is the right place for the headquarters as it is here the National Research Center for Weed Science (later, Directorate of Weed Research-DWR) is located. I also recall my association with DWR as I served as a member of different review committees during Dr. Bhan and Dr. Yaduraj's leadership at the Centre. I always believed that the DWR provides a strong foundation for the ISWS to establish and flourish in the coming years. It is pleasing to note that the DWR and ISWS jointly organized the silver jubilee Conference of APWS in Hyderabad in 2016 (second APWS conference held in India) under the leadership of Drs. Yaduraju and Sharma. The high quality of the presentations by the Indian weed scientists in that conference was indeed a testimony of the growth and advancement of weed science in India over the years.

Looking at the recent issues of Indian Journal of Weed Science, I note that the quality of scientific papers published by Indian weed scientists has enhanced significantly. The members of ISWS and the editorial team should be complimented for this achievement. In particular, it is pleasing to note that most of the branches of weed science have been covered unlike in previous issues, which contained mostly papers related to herbicides. Papers related to ecological/habitat management and integrated weed management in production systems have now started appearing in increasing frequency in the journal. It is heartening to note that the Indian weed scientists are now being recognized abroad for their high-quality publications. It is also pleasing to note that a few Indian weed scientists have been serving as office bearers of the International Weed Science Society.

I congratulate the members and EC of ISWS for selecting the theme “Weeds and Society: Challenges and Opportunities” to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of our society. The theme is highly appropriate as it transcends not only all fields of weed science but also it integrates the public. I strongly believe that weed research and education/technology transfer should not only be systems oriented but also serving the society as a whole. At this junction of changing times apart from traditional agricultural technologies, modern, evolving technologies such as information and biotechnology (ITBT), space, artificial intelligence and robotics etc should be considered in designing weed management technologies for the future.

During this occasion of Golden Jubilee celebration, I wish the ISWS continuing success in achieving its principal goal of promoting research and education/extension related to weeds and the dissemination of science-based information on weed management in its widest perspectives to meet the future challenges of the society.

Dr R.P. Singh

Ex. Professor, Department of Agronomy & Former Director & Officer on Special Duty (RGSC), Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221 005, U.P.
Former President, ISWS (2002-2004); Former Secretary, ISWS (1986-1988)
Mobile: 09450404137 | Email: 158rpsingh@gmail.com

My memories with ISWS


As far I remember, the seeds of Indian Society of weed science for its establishment sown at the College of Agriculture, Banaras Hindu University in the presence of Dr. R.S. Chaudhari, then Principal of Agriculture College, BHU, Dr. Chandrika Thakur then Principal of Agriculture College Sabour (Bihar) and Dr. M.K. Mulani, Prof. of Agronomy, HAU, Hissar during early 1968. Later on , a weed conference was held at Hissar in summer 1968. Since Dr. M.K. Mulani was actively involved in weed science research therefore, it was decided to have headquarter of ISWS at HAU, Hissar under leadership of Dr. M.K. Mulani.

The society started its publication on the name of Indian Journal of Weed Science, and it continued up to mid seventies, but after that it became delayed up to the end of seventy. It happened mainly because. Dr. Mulani left for Nigeria on a foreign assignment. The activities of societies remain in dormant stage till the end of seventy. Again with active involvement of Dr. K. Krishnamurthi, the then Director of Research, UAS Bengaluru, during 1979-80, ISWS headquarter became in Bengaluru. At that time, President, Secretary and Treasurer of Society were Dr. K. Krishnamurthi, Dr. Maiku Lal and Dr. S.M. Kondap, respectively. The publication of journal started from Hyderabad and the society continued the activity and had the opportunity to organized 8th Asian-Pacific Weed Science Conference at Bengaluru under the leadership of Dr. K. Krishnamurthi as Organizing Secretary in 1981.

In 1984, Dr. U.C. Upadhyay became next secretary of society and I became councilor of UP. It was decided in General Body meeting at MAU Parbhani that the next conference of society will be at BHU and I was made organizing secretary of the conference. The conference was very successfully organized without taking any financial help from the society. The conference was attended by above 200 participants from all over the country including Dr. R.N. Anderson and Dr. D. Goms of USA. Subsequently, a seminar was also organized on ‘Future approaches on weed science’ with the help of Dr. R.N. Anderson and Dr D. Goms. This was the turning point of the society, which got momentum. At that time, I was actively involved in weed science research along with my research scholars like Dr. V.P. Singh, present President of society and Dr. Ramesh Kumar Singh, presently Professor of Agronomy in BHU.

During 1985-87, Society had election. Dr. K.S. Gill and S.K. Mukhopadhayay were contestant for Presidentship and both got the equal votes. After lengthy discussion Dr. H. S. Gill became the President. That time, publication of Journal was not regular due to paucity of fund. There was annual conference in 1987 at New Delhi, Dr. S. Sankaran was choosen at President myself secretary for 1987-88 and Dr. Kondup was treasurer of the society. A grave situation occured in General Body meeting due to financial irregularity. In this meeting, I was entrusted the duty of both treasurer and secretary. The publication of journal was shifted to Palampur from Hyderabad, and Dr. C.M. Singh was appointed as Editor-In-Chief of the journal. I was given the treasurership with zero balance in the society account. During this critical financial difficulties, I appreciate the cooperation, devotion and dedication of following weed scientist; Dr. S.M. Singh, Dr L.S. Brar, Dr. Govindra Singh and Dr. R.K. Malik, who were instrumental for meeting the shortage of financial resources. With this cooperation, publication of journal again started from 1984. I was given the responsibility of the treasurership for next five years (upto 1988-1994). There after, society never looked back in terms of finance.

Since all these senior scientist were at the verge of retirement, so as President, I took the decision in General Body meeting of society at PAU Ludhiana to shift the society headquarter from HAU, Hissar to DWR, Jabalpur. After shifting the society at Jabalpur Dr. Malik became President and Dr. J.G. Varshaney secretary of society, but some how, in initial years, the society activity was not very smooth due to differences in opinion between Hisar and Jabalpur factions for their Dr. R.K. Malik already had great devotion for the development of society and had courage to resolve the differences, and brought the society at the right place. It has been only possible by cooperation of all members of society.

The society has completed its 50 years of establishment and organizing international conference on its Golden Jubilee. I congratulate all the executive members of society and organizing members of the conference for there great efforts.

I thank organizers for giving me opportunity to express my views and memories of ISWS.

Dr Govindra Singh

Former Professor of Weed Science, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar -263145, Uttarakhand
Former Secretary, ISWS (1988-1990) | Former Chief Editor, ISWS (2002-2005)

My memories with ISWS


I did my B.Sc. (Hons) Ag . 1967, M.Sc. (Ag) in 1969 and Ph.D. in 1979 from G. B. Pant university of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar. After completing my Master's degree in Agronomy, I joined G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar as a Faculty Member in 1969 in the Department of Agronomy and started my career in the field of Weed Science. After joining my service, soon I learned about the Indian Society of Weed Science and became the member in 1973. I served the university as Junior Research Officer, Senior Research Officer and Professor Agronomy of Weed Science.

I guided 22 M.Sc. and 11 Ph.D. students in the field of Weed Science and published 135 research papers in national and international Journals of repute and presented more than 90 research papers in various conferences, wrote 38 popular scientific articles and handled 33 research projects in the field of Weed Science.

As a teacher and research worker I completed many projects on weed science and developed technology of weed management for field crops and also developed weed control laboratory in GPUAT

I have been associated with the Indian Society of Weed Science as Life Member, State counsellor followed by Secretary and then Vice-President (nominated), Associate Editor of the Indian Journal of Weed Science and subsequently its Editor- in- Chief. I also remained advisor to Herbicide Resistance Action Committee of the Indian Crop Protection Association. I also organized 2003 conference at GPUAT. I have attended all the conferences from 1972 till 2005 without fail.

In relation to my research work and projects, I visited many countries including Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore and Philippines. In recognition of my contribution in weed science, I am thankful that I was honored many awards by the society including Appreciation Award in 1984 and 1986; Fellow of the Indian Society of Weed Science in 1971 and Gold Medal in 2003.

After my dedicated service that I rendered to G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology Pantnagar, I retired from the university services in June 2005. Although I have retired and not very much active in research, but my heart still throbs for weed science and whenever I get opportunity, I become involved for the cause of weed science.

Dr R.K. Malik

Former President, ISWS (2005-2007) Former Secretary, ISWS (1999-2004)
Flot No. 201 K.P. Towers Frends Colony, Ashiana Nagar, Patna, Patna - 800025 (Bihar)
E-mail: rk.malik@cgiar.org

My memories with ISWS


My association with the Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS) made some useful contributions on how to deal with new and emerging issues in weed science. In science, when we come out with new findings or ideas, sometimes an element of confusion emerges in small groups but at the level of society, a broad consensus could be developed. We could create a school of thought around the “Herbicide Resistance in Phalaris minor” in the field of Weed Science in mid-1990s. This, in fact, added a new chapter in Weed Science in India. We were fairly successful with good number of colleagues in weed science from SAUs/ICAR institutes and private sector to formulate “Herbicide Resistance Management Action Committee” in late 1990s.

Reinventing the entire system (farmers, scientists, and private sector and extension agencies) of transforming tillage system from conventional tillage (CT) to Zero tillage (ZT) was a new paradigm and needed the input from the farmers, partners and a platform like ISWS. That coincided with the time when the scientists in Haryana were aspiring to find immediate solution to the crisis of herbicide resistance. The introduction of ZT in India was again a significant contribution from weed scientists who got excellent support from private sector as part of ISWS.

Some kind of misunderstanding of what led to the problem in late 1970s and mid of 2000s was no different from any organisation and we could resolve these problem amicably through dedicated efforts of colleagues and in a very positive frame of mind. I have received much more favourable treatment from my senior colleagues in the Society at any point of time in the past.

Given the legacy of strong support from CCS Haryana Agricultural University in 1970s, a strongest contingent of 11 weed scientists at HAU in 1990s onward, private sector support for generating resources, I strongly believe that ISWS is on a strong footing now. I believe that the future generation of weed scientists will be increasing rely on the support from ISWS and maintain the quality of work that weed scientists have done during last 45 years of ISWS.

Dr J.C. Majumdar

Scientific Advisor, Crop Care Federation of India “Manjori”, G – 247, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, Gurgaon - 122017 (Haryana)
Mobile: 9891514708 | E-mail: drjcmajumdar@gmail.com

My memories with ISWS


Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS) is today a prestigious internationally acclaimed scientific body matching the best weed science organisations in the world. However, I vividly remember the early days of ISWS when we had to struggle hard to be heard and get recognition. So, on the occasion of its Golden Jubilee celebrations. I heartily congratulate ISWS for this phenomenal progress.

At the outset, I would like to thank ISWS for the novel idea of honouring all its past Presidents, Secretaries and active members of EC. I have had the privilege of knowing most of them quite closely, and I shall take this opportunity to recount my association with these stalwarts.

I am a proud Life Member of ISWS and have the privilege of being associated with it from its very inception. When I left IARI, New Delhi after my Ph. D. , ISWS did not exist; and when I came back after my D.Sc. (Agri.) from Germany, ISWS had just been formed. So, I met Dr. Moolani and became a Life Member of ISWS. Since then, I have been participating in all the major activities of ISWS and it has been a great pleasure for me to watch how the Society has been growing and going from strength to strength. It has also been a learning process for me.

To begin with, I would like to take the name of Prof. V.S. Mani, who was a member of the Advisory Committee of my Ph. D. programme at IARI, New Delhi and was deeply associated with my first research work on herbicides in maize. I learnt a lot on weed control from him. So, it was a great pleasure for me when he became the President of ISWS. There are several other Presidents and Secretaries from IARI with whom I had the opportunity of being closely associated. I fondly remember Dr. S.K. Mukhopadhay whom I knew from my under graduate days throughout the IARI sojourn. He became the President of ISWS and eventually rose to become one of the most prominent authorities on weed control in rice, even at the international level. Another colleague from IARI who climbed the ladder of success and became the Vice Chancellor of TNAU, Coimbatore, Dr. S. Sankaran, was a close friend of mine. He also became the President of ISWS. I remember the pleasant task of reviewing the progress of weed control research in various universities under AICRIP as a member of the Committee headed by him. Dr. S.K. Mukhopadhyay of Visva Bharati and Dr. H.S. Gill of PAU, both ex-Presidents of ISWS, were also members of the Committee. I remained in close touch with all of them till their last days. The latest weed scientist from IARI with whom I have been quite close from his student days is Dr. N. T. Yaduraju. It was a pleasure to watch him doing excellent work which earned him rich reputation as a weed scientist and he was rewarded with some important positions in his career. As President of ISWS as well as the Director of DWR, Jabalpur, he made significant contributions to weed science with his innovative ideas.

Another good senior friend with whom I was very closely associated was Dr. K. Krishnamurthy of UAS, Bangalore who became the President of ISWS. A very warm, knowledgeable and volatile personality – it was a pleasure to work with him. While visiting Dr. Krishnamurthy quite often, he introduced me to Dr. S. V. R. Shetty, a bright young weed scientist in his department who eventually became the Secretary of ISWS. I still remember our endless interesting discussions as well as field work.

Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana has been another important centre of ISWS where stalwarts like Dr. H.S. Gill and Dr. L.S. Brar have held the positions of Presidents and Secretary. Dr. Gill, one of the very senior weed scientists of the country, did pioneering work not only in wheat but also on a host of other crops. He was aptly followed by the talented Dr. L.S. Brar. I have good memories of being associated with both of them in promoting weed research and discussing various issues of ISWS.

While talking about PAU and wheat, I fondly recollect my acquaintance and association with Dr. R.K. Malik of HAU, Hissar whom I watched rising as a bright young weed scientist conducting research on some of the new herbicides on weed control in wheat particularly his pioneering work on resistance of Phalaris minor, which brought him international acclaim. He served both as President and Secretary of ISWS.

Dr. Malik was groomed by Dr. V.M. Bhan. I fondly remember my good old friend whom I first met at GBPAUT Pantnagar. He had set up a herbicide residue laboratory which was something very special those days. Since I had spent some time in Stuttgat-Hohenheim University in Germany working on herbicide residues and dissipation, we used to meet quite often to discuss residue issues.

During my first visit to NRCWS, Dr. Bhan used to be President of ISWS. Dr. Govindra Singh was Dr. Bhan's illustrious successor in GBPAUT with whom I had the occasions of holding of many important discussions. He subsequently served as the Secretary of ISWS. From UP, another good friend, who became the Secretary of ISWS was Dr. R.P. Singh of BHU. I remember spending interesting time with him.

During my long association with ISWS, I have also had the pleasure of knowing fairly well several other past Presidents and Secretaries like Dr. U.C. Upadhyay, Dr. Jay G. Varshney, Dr. T.V. Muniyappa, Dr. A.R. Sharma and Dr. A.K. Gogoi. However, the last but not the least is Dr. Sushil Kumar who has been the Secretary of ISWS two times and has been serving ISWS with single-minded dedication and great organizing ability.

As can be seen from the forgoing account, I have been associated with most of the past Presidents and Secretaries of ISWS. However, my association has not been confined only to the Presidents and Secretaries but also to numerous weed scientists - my seniors, my peers and my younger friends who were/are members of ISWS. It has been just like a family where I have come back again and again to spend some quality time.

I am happy to see that ISWS is doing such wonderful job and getting laurels from all over the world. However, I can hardly forget some agonizing time when ISWS plunged into some unseemly factional fights, which damaged the reputation of this great organization. I am very happy that together with the late Dr. Muniyappa and some other friends, we succeeded in resolving the disputes, and now ISWS is back on an even keel sailing steadily towards a great future.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank ISWS for conferring on me the honour of the Fellow of ISWS.

Before concluding, I think I should say a few words about my whereabouts. After working for BASF for 31 years on research, development, registration and promotion of herbicides and other plant protection chemicals in India and South East Asia, I am presently working as the Scientific Advisor to the Crop Care Federation of India.

Dr L.S. Brar

Professor Colony, Barewal Road, PAU Ludhiana, Ludhiana - 141004 (Punjab)
Former President, ISWS (1999-2001) | Former Chief Editor, ISWS (1995-1998)
Mobile: 8146940200 | E-mail: lsbrar@yahoo.ca

My memories with ISWS


The Society came into its existance in 1968 and my M.Sc. advisor Dr. Vijay Kumar told me about the ISWS activity and other details relating to membership. I became the member of the ISWS in 1970 after joining my service. It was rather very encouraging for all the Weed Scientists to have a seperate society. Fortunately from beginning of my carrier, I start attending the conferences organized by ISWS because of the favouable attitude of Dr HS Gill, my scheme incharge. In 1985, I got elected as Joint Secretary of ISWS and I was actively involved in the various activities of the society. During that period, I tried to convince the scientists to become the member of ISWS. It was nice experience to work with senior scientists of the executive committee. Later on, I was nominated as councillor (Punjab) in 1988-90. I used to convey the day to day activities of the society to the concerned scientists at PAU and feedback to the executive members about the concerns of the PAU faculty. During that period, activities of society were slowed down due to which publications of the Journal was delayed. Though, Dr. C.M. Singh (HPAU) Chief Editor, was striving very hard to update the publication.

In the year 1991, I was entrusted the duty of Business Manager of ISWS and the publication of Journal started from PAU, Ludhiana. It was quiet a hard time not because of work, but because of the paucity of funds. I used to get the money from Dr. C.M. Singh with the message of shortage of funds. Anyhow, with permission of the executive, I started sponsoring the various volumes of the journal from the private organizations, which proved quiet helpful. Though, it was a hard time, but it was pleasure movement of looking after the duty of printing the various volumes of the Journal. Help from the various referees and my colleagues from PAU proved to be a great relief for me. In the year 1999, I was elected as President of ISWS along with a nice team of executive members. It was a hard time because a lot of pressure was there to shift the headquarter of ISWS from HAU, Hissar to DWR, Jabalpur, but with the cooperation of all the members of the society, it was resolved to continue headquarter at Hissr till the next EC elected. I also acted as Editor-in-chief of the society for 3 years. In the year 1998, I was honoured with fellow of ISWS and later, in year 2003, with the gold medal. In year 2017, I was honoured with the Life Time Achievement award.

At the end, I would like to express my thanks to all the members of the society due to which I achieved a lot in my career because of my association with ISWS.

Dr Gita Kulshrestha

Former Professor, Head and Emeritus Scientist, Division of Agricultural Chemical, IARI, New Delhi-110012
Mobile: 9810994627 | E-mail: gitakul@rediffmail.com

Down the memory lane: Indian Society of Weed Science


At the outset, I congratulate Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS) for completing fifty glorious years and celebrating it by organizing an International Conference this year on this occasion. My Association with ISWS dates back to early-70s when in the national conference on weed science organized in HAU, Hissar, I presented my first research paper on persistence of s-triazine herbicides in soil. I recall a discussion held between Dr. Moolani, organizer and perhaps President, EC, ISWS and Prof. V.S. Mani with other scientists for reviving and strengthening of the society publication, Indian Journal on Weed science (IJWS).

My Ph.D. thesis entitled “Dissipation of s-triazine herbicides in maize crop and their carry-over effect in subsequent crops” in 1972 not only earned me SLC Gold Medal for the outstanding Ph.D. research at IARI but also paved my way for selection as Jr. Chemist (Herbicide residues) in Weed Control Section, Division of Agronomy, IARI, New Delhi with Prof. V.S. Mani, the position that I joined on January 15, 1973. Since then, I have been conducting research, providing guidance and post graduate teaching in the field of weed Science such as chemistry of herbicides, herbicide residue chemistry, transformation & metabolism of herbicides, advances in agrochemicals etc. Being in the same stream, I soon became Life Member of the Society. On a lighter note, I was the last directly recruited scientist at IARI before start of Indian Agricultural Research Service in 1975 and recruitment taking place through ASRB.

Since then I made my lives avocation fostering of safe use of herbicides in Indian Agriculture by developing Herbicide Residue Chemistry. At IARI, through my pioneering work, several herbicide schedules in various crops were evaluated and cleared from toxic residues angles. These included diverse chemicals like triazines, phenylureas, anilides, dinitroanilines, phenoxy-phenoxyacids, diphenylethers, sulfonylureas, imidazolinones etc. The work involved development and standardization of spectrophotometric, GC and HPLC methods for analysis of multi-residues of herbicides and their degradation products. HPLC method developed by me for simultaneous estimation of isoproturon and its transformation products had been well adopted by Bureau of Indian Standards. I developed bioassay techniques for persistent triazines using indicator plants, which had been adopted by other laboratories. The environmental awareness made my study the fate of herbicides in agro-ecosystem. These included investigations on photochemical transformation; sorption and leaching behaviour; microbial degradation and metabolite identification; the long term effect such as accumulation, enhanced degradation, mobility and impact on soil microflora.

The world wide reports of ground water contamination with persistent herbicides prompted me to undertake work relating to bioremediation using microorganisms. This involved isolation of organisms with ability to rapidly degrade herbicide pollutant. My interest in studying metabolic mechanism of resistance in Phalaris minor to isoproturon had been due to national concern to explore resistance and cross resistance of various herbicides of same and different classes of chemicals and developing neem preparation as an eco-friendly alternative herbicide in Integrated Weed Management in wheat. I pay my tribute to my early years mentors viz. Dr. R.S. Dewan, Dr K.C. Gulati, Dr S.K. Mukerjee and Prof. V.S. Mani for their valuable support, guidance and encouragement.

ISWS has made its impact by organizing symposia and workshops biennially, providing platform for presenting new researches; suggesting novel ideas and raising problems faced in Indian context from time to time. This encouraged scientists like me to conduct research on frontier areas in weed science. I would like to pay my gratitude to Prof. V.S. Mani, my post graduate teacher and mentor from whom I learnt about weeds, their association in different crops, agronomy and physiology of weed science as student and subsequently as colleague. The conferences also provided platform for interaction with stalverts in weed science like Dr. V.M. Bhan, Dr. R.K. Malik, Dr. L.S. Brar, Dr. R.P. Singh, Dr. S.V.R. Shetty, Dr. T.V.R. Prasad, Dr. Bibhas Ray to name a few and many more; and opportunity to learn about latest research advances being made in different disciplines of weed science.

I was associated with the society initially as councilor, then as member of editorial board at several occasions and made my contribution by reviewing several relevant research papers sent to me for publication in the journal from time to time. I was also associated as member of publication committee and subsequently as an editor in 25th Asian Pacific Weed Science Society conference on “Progress in Weed Science in the Asia Pacific Region” organized under the banner of ISWS at Hyderabad in October 2015.

Indian Society of weed science has witnessed many good and few not so good phases. But it thrived with excellence during last few years under the leadership of past President, Dr. N.T. Yaduraju and Secretary, Dr. A.R. Sharma along with their EC team. They deserve huge applaud. Their selfless hard work and dedication not only brought in unity and stability in the society but also raised standard of IJWS evident from NAAS rating improving from 4.2 to 5.17 last year. This is my humble advice to the society to procure Thomson Reuters rating so that journal's NAAS rating could further enhance.

I feel extremely happy and express my gratitude to ISWS to bestow its honour on me from time to time in recognition of my outstanding research contributions viz. Fellow ISWS (2008), ISWS Gold Medal (2010) and Life Time Achievement Award, (2014-15). I extend my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the respective ECs of the Society for the same.

At the end, I once again congratulate Indian Society of Weed Science for glorious 50 years of existence celebrating it with International conference as mark of Golden Jubilee and wish the society flourishing successfully for many more years to come.

Dr A.N. Rao

ICRISAT Development center (IDC) & International Rice Research Institute (IRRI);
Patancheru, Hyderabad - 502324 and Secretary General, APWSS
Mobile: 9440372165 | E-mail: anraojaya1@gmail.com

My memories with ISWS


My association with ISWS started in 1977, when I was working for my Ph.D. and published a paper in Indian Journal of Weed Science (IJWS) (Rao et al., 1977). I became Life Member of ISWS on 25 June 1981. ISWS has introduced me to Asian Pacific Weed Science Society (APWSS), when ISWS has conducted the eighth Asian Pacific Weed Science Society Conference at Bangalore, Karnataka during November 22 to 29, 1981. I presented a paper at that conference (Rao and Shetty, 1981). It was a fascinating experience to participate in an international conference and listen to Drs. H.R. Arakeri (India), G.L. Mercado (Philippines), D.L. PIucknett (USA), R.K. Nishimoto (USA), P.W. Michael (Australia), K.A. Watson (Australia), S. Matsunaka (Japan), C.H. Teoh (Malaysia), U. Suwunnamek (Thailand), T. I. Cox (New Zealand), M.H. Lambert (Pacific Islands), M. Soerjani (Co-opted, Indonesia), K. Krishnamurthy (India), H.S. Gill (India), K.C. Nag (India), U.C. Upadhyay (India), S.K. Mukhopadyay (India) and several others. The presentation (content, slides and way of presentation) of Dr. K. Krishnamurthy has made a strong impact on me.

ISWS has enabled me to participate in Biennial Conferences held at different parts of India, meet co-Weed Scientists, chair sessions, serve as resource person to select Weed Scientists for oral and poster presentations and other awards, exchange views, develop friendship and rejuvenate to rededicate to research on Weed Science. I have presented papers and participated in ISWS Conferences held at Parbhani (1979), Bhuvaneswar (1980), Hissar (1982 and 1992), Anand (1985), Jorhat (1988), Jabalpur (1990, 2014), Varanasi (1999), New Delhi (2000), Pantnagar (2003), Hyderabad (2015) and Udaipur (2017). When I was working for IRRI at Egypt, I was invited by Dr. R.K. Malik to attend the symposium on "Integrated weed management for sustainable agriculture", organized by ISWS at Hissar. I attended and presented a paper (Hassan and Rao, 1994). It was a wonderful experience to meet and discuss with Drs. Dr. Jonathan Gressel (Israel), Dr. Jens Streibig (Denmark), R. C. Kirkwood (U.K.), A. B. Fischer (Germany) and others who attended the conference at Hissar, Haryana.

I was honored to receive ISWS awards: i.) "ISWS Fellow (2007-2008) " on 21 August 2010 at Delhi (Dr. N.T. Yaduraju, President, ISWS and Dr. Samunder Singh, Secretary, ISWS) (Photo: 1) and ii.) "ISWS Gold Medal (2010-2011) " on 20 April 2012 at Kerala Agric. University, Thrissur, Kerala (Dr. T.V. Muniyappa, President, ISWS and Dr. Sushil Kumar, Secretary, ISWS) (Photo: 2).

It was a wonderful movement in my career to participate in the organization of 25th APWSS conference at Hyderabad in 2015, which ISWS has organized. I was given the responsibility of Chairman, Program Committee. Dr. NT Yaduraju (President, APWSS and ISWS) was residing in Hyderabad at that time. It was a great experience to actively work along with Dr. Yaduraju and involve in several activities like identifying the venue for the conference and hotels for accommodating the delegates, choosing the gifts to be given away to all delegates of conference, attending the EC meetings and help in making key decisions regarding the conference and practically in all aspects of conference the organization. Hyderabad experience helped me in participating in the organization of 26th APWSS conference in Japan as APWSS General Secretary. Thanks to Dr. Yaduraju. It was a learning experience participating in 25th APWSS conference at Hyderabad and meeting Weed Scientists from different countries of Asian-Pacific region and getting acquainted with recent developments in Weed Science.

ISWS has given me an opportunity to serve it as a Life member (since 1981)., Councilor, A.P., Joint Secretary., Editorial Board Member, IJWS., Associate Editor, IJWS (continuing). ISWS, in collaboration with APWSS, has published four books of which I am one of the Editor (Rao and Yaduraju. 2015; Shetty et al., 2015; Rao and Matsumoto, 2017; Chandrasena and Rao, 2017) (Photo: 3)

I am grateful and indebted to ISWS, as it encouraged me at each and every step in my carrier as a Weed Scientist. I will continue to be actively associated with ISWS, to serve the cause of Weed Science, as long as I live. References:
Chandrasena N and Rao AN (Eds.). 2017. Commemorating 50 Years (1967-2017). 50th Anniversary Celebratory Volume. Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society (APWSS); Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS), India and The Weed Science Society of Japan (WSSJ), Japan. 2017. 208 p.

Rao AN, Dagar JC, Dubey PS 1977. Phytoallelopathic potentials of Parthenium hysterophorus Linn. Indian Journal of Weed Science 9 (1): 24-30.

Rao AN, and Shetty SVR 1981. Investigation on weed suppressing ability of smother cropping systems in relation to canopy development and light interception. Pp. 357-364. In: Proc. 8th Asian Pacific Weed Science Society Conference, Bangalore, India.

Hassan SM and Rao AN 1994. Integrated weed management for sustainable rice production in Egypt. pp. 359-364. In: Integrated Weed Management for Sustainable Agriculture. Indian Society of Weed Science, Hissar, India

Rao AN and Yaduraju NT 2015. Weed Science for Sustainable Agriculture, Environment and Biodiversity. Volume 1. 25th Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society Conference, Hyderabad, India., Indian Society of Weed Science, Jabalpur.

Rao AN and Matsumoto H (Eds.) 2017. Weed management in Rice in the Asian-Pacific Region. Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society (APWSS); The Weed Science Society of Japan, Japan and Indian Society of Weed Science, India

Shetty SVR, Prasad TVR, Reddy MD, Rao AN, Mishra JS, Kulshreshta G and Abraham CT 2015. Proceedings, Volume II (Oral Papers). 25 Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society Conference, Hyderabad, India. Indian Society of Weed Science, Jabalpur, 155 p.

Dr N.T. Yaduraju

Former Director, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur and National Coordinator, ICAR-NAIP, New Delhi
Former President, ISWS (2008-2011 & 2013-2016) | Email: nyaduraju@gmail.com

My association with ISWS- A journey sweet and sour


I am happy to write this note on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee year of ISWS. At the outset, I compliment the present Executive Council of the Society for their initiative in observing this milestone by organizing an International Conference. Special appreciations to the EC for selecting the Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur as the venue. It was the wish of every weed scientist in India that ICAR nodal centre at Jabalpur should be the natural home for ISWS.

Let me start with my interest in weed science, which later developed into a deep passion. This I thought is relevant here as it is directly related to my involvement in ISWS, which main mandate is to promote weed science. Further, I feel this narration may inspire youngsters to pursue weed science as a career. My interest in weed science dates back to my MSc days at Agricultural College, Dharwad. During our walks in the sprawling campus, it had been a practice among a few of us to go on identifying the plants grown along the roadside. This probably brought me subconsciously close to weeds. Secondly, it was a common thing then (true now also) to choose a guide who would be more liberal and the one who doesn't put unnecessary hurdles in doing the research work. Keeping this in mind, I chose to work with Dr. MM Hosmani, who was respected by the scientific community as a down-to-earth Agronomist and a Weed Scientist. A gem of a person as he was, gave me total freedom in selecting the research topic and in conducting the research.

Having decided to work on Striga, I made great efforts in collecting the literature pertaining to the weed, which was very sparse in our library (remember, there was no internet!). I was fascinated by the book Weed Control in the Tropics by L. Kasasian (Leonard Hill 1971, 307 p). In the book, Dr. Kasasian was shown as the Tropical Weed Specialist at Weed Research Organization (WRO), Oxford, UK. Having realized that Striga was a priority research area at WRO, I wrote a letter to Kasasian requesting for literature on Striga. One fine day, I received a letter, not from Kasasian, but from Chris Parker, who said in his letter that he had replaced Kasasian and he generously offered to help me. Little did I realize at that time that it was going to be the beginning of a very lasting and continued friendship with Chris and his family. My 3-year stint at WRO for my PhD later cemented the bonding further. For the unaccustomed, Chris is an authority on parasitic weeds and he continues to edit Haustorium- a newsletter published by the International Parasitic Plant Society (http://www.parasiticplants.org/ipps_newsletter.asp). My hunger for more literature had a chance encounter with a foreign agency (I don't remember the name, I am afraid) who would supply any research article free of cost. In a pre-internet era, this was like hitting a gold mine! This helped me in understanding the problem in its totality and plan and execute experiments accordingly.

My exposure to ISWS was in late 1970s, after I joined IARI, New Delhi. It was my good fortune that I was asked to work with legendary Prof. VS Mani, who was synonymous with weed science in India at that time. He was instrumental in grooming a generation of weed scientists including S Sankaran and MM Hosmani. My early memories of ISWS was that of attending the Biennial Conference held at Hyderabad and next at Parbhani. It was a great feeling meeting and listening to giants such as Drs. K Krishnamurthy, VM Bhan, S Sankaran, SK Mukhopadhyaya, HS Gill, Bibhas Ray, SVR Shetty and many others. I served as the councillor for Delhi and helped enrolling many new members including a few from outside Agronomy.

Another turning point in my career was a chance meeting with Prof. John D Fryer, then Director, WRO, Oxford. It was late 1970s, with widespread adoption of Mexican dwarf wheat, wild oats and Phalaris minor were beginning to raise their ugly head. The Government of India had invited Prof. Fryer to assess the problem and suggest remedial measures. Dr. MV Rao Coordinator, AICRP on Wheat (who later became Special DG, ICAR and VC, APAU) and Prof. VS Mani deputed me to accompany Prof. Fryer on his field visits. This gave me an unexpected but wonderful experience of knowing the great man and learning from him the nuances of weed science. For the novice, Prof. Fryer is the author of several books including Weed Control Handbook. Vol. 1&2 (Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford 1970).

The real exposure to international weed science community came with my selection for Commonwealth Scholarship and placement at WRO, Oxford/University of Reading, Reading, UK for my PhD. Sadly, closed down now, WRO was considered as a Mecca for weed scientists. It provided me the rare opportunity to work in such an internationally renowned research centre and with internationally acclaimed weed scientists. The experience was indeed a real dream come true for me and I couldn't have asked for more. Many top weed scientists from far and wide would come on sabbatical to work here. Keith Moody, the famous weed scientist from IRRI, Philippines was there for a year during my stay at WRO. It was very enriching interacting with him. I seized the opportunity with both hands and did well to get the maximum out of my placement at WRO. I owe a lot to John Caseley and Donald Drennan- my supervisors and many others at WRO for shaping me as a hardcore weed scientist.

Back to Society, I was involved in and participated in most of the Biennial Conferences of the Society. I took active part in the activities of the Society, served in the Editorial team of Indian Journal of Weed Science for a number of years before serving as its Chief Editor from 1998-01. Responsible for starting ISWS newsletter Weed News and continued as its Founder-Editor from 1997 to 2000. The experience of being the Founder-Editor (1986-96) of Agronomy News published by the Indian Society of Agronomy. In 2001, I brought out the Directory of Weed Scientists of India (ISWS, 42p), which was then found very useful by all members.

During 2007-2010, the Society faced unprecedented internal crisis due to some unfortunate developments. However, with the unstinted efforts of Dr. TV Muniyappa and wisdom of others, the society was put back on rails and he managed the affairs of the Society as its President (2011-12) quite admirably. Many like-minded members helped in building the Society to its original glory. Special mention be made of Dr. TVR Prasad and Dr. KN Kalyanmurthy for their efforts in re-registering the Society.

My best service to the Society came during 2013-16. As president of the Society with active cooperation and support from the members of the Executive Council, brought out many reforms in the functioning of the Society and in improving the quality of the IJWS. Special gratitude to Dr. AR Sharma, who as Secretary worked tirelessly and was instrumental in developing strict guidelines for the various awards instituted by the Society. Measures such as keeping EC members out of the race for awards, total transparency in the selection and due credit for merit ensured free and fair selection of awardees. These enhanced the credibility of the Society manifold. I took personal interest in redesigning the Society 's website. It was made user-friendly, dynamic and rich in content. Online submission of papers, membership enrolment, full access to journal and newsletters, conference proceedings etc have been enabled. I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to Gyanendra Pratap Singh at the Society's office for his labour of love in designing, managing and updating the website. A special feature, wherein the members could update their profile on their own is available in the website, which many members have not taken advantage of. I sincerely hope they would do so in the near future.

As an icing on the cake, our concerted efforts improved the quality of Society's Journal and recorded higher rating by NAAS. Lot of credit should go to ever-acive Dr. Sushilkumar, the Chief Editor and his team of Editors for their efforts. With the overall enhanced credibility, the Society attracted funding from individuals. Notable being the donations made by Dr. TV Muniyappa and Dr. AN Rao for instituting ISWS awards. Dr. Megh Singh, University of Florida, USA contributed a generous amount as seed money to a Corpus, which was further enhanced by modest contributions made by several members. The interest earned from this Corpus is currently being used to support young scientists to participate in National and International conferences.

In a first of its kind, ISWS joined hands with Indian Society of Agronomy in bringing out a reference book entitled Weed Science and Management (Eds. Yaduraju NT, Sharma AR and Das TK 402p) for the benefit of students and teacher in weed science.

Another high point in my career is, as President of APWSS, I was instrumental in organizing the 25th Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society Conference at Hyderabad from 13-16 October, 2015. The preparations had started two years earlier with ISWS making a successful bid to organize the event at 24th APWSS Conference held at Bandung, Indonesia in 2013. It was indeed a proud moment for all weed scientists of the country that we got the opportunity to host the 25th APWSS Conference after a long gap of 34 years. It was a happy coincidence that we had the largest contingent from India, present at Bandung, to celebrate the occasion. We worked very hard over the next two years and were able to host one of the most memorable conferences ever in the history of APWSS. The Conference attracted the largest number of delegates with 690 registered participants, including 107 from overseas and 46 from industry. There were 11 plenary lectures, 16 lead presentations and 106 oral presentations, besides 627 poster presentations. It was probably for the first time, five satellite symposia on emerging topics were concurrently organized. They were on: (1) Weed management in Conservation Agriculture; (2) The Weedy Rice Challenge in Asia Issues and Options for Management; (3) Herbicide Resistance: Current Status and Future Challenges globally; (4) Biological Control – Progress and Future prospects in Asia-Pacific region; and (5) Utilization of Weeds as Bio-resources. These were well organized by the symposia coordinators and were well attended and well received by the scientific community. Co-edited the 25th APWSS Conference Proceedings, Volume 2, which contained all the plenary and lead papers. All these publications are made available at ISWS website.

As it was a Silver Jubilee Conference, we brought out a special publication Weed Science in the Asian-Pacific Region. I am happy that VS Rao - one of the most respected weed scientists and author of many books on Weed Science - agreed to head the Editorial Team, which also included myself, Nimal Chandrasena, Gul Hassan and AR Sharma. The publication is unique and one of its kind with information on the status of Weed Science in 19 countries of the Asian-Pacific region contributed by 47 weed scientists from 19 Countries. Such a mega event could not have been organized without the support, guidance and help from a host of people. I am grateful to all the members of the Executive Council, plenary speakers, chairpersons of various committees, friends from the industry for their generous donation. Dr. AR Sharma deserves special mention for being with me all the time and working tirelessly. Overall, organizing the 25th APWSS Conference gave me great personal satisfaction as it provided greater visibility and credibility to ISWS. Further, with rigorous efforts in fund-raising and judicious spending, we could save a whopping ` 60 lakhs, thus placing the Society on a strong financial position.

In 2016, we very successfully conducted the Society elections totally online. This is a land mark achievement as the process was transparent, no bogus voting, took less time and saved lot of money. We are probably the first one among the professional Societies in agriculture in the country to carry out e-elections and I am sure other Societies may follow this initiative. I personally thank Dr. Devraj Arya (earlier with Monsanto) for his efforts in making this happen. We handed over the reins of the Society to the new team in March 2017– coinciding with the Biennial Conference at Udaipur. It was again for the first time that the new team was introduced at the GB meeting and asked them to take over. The new team thanked us (the old regime) for our services to the Society. I wish, the gesture and the bonhomie will be followed in the future too.

We concluded our role by organizing the Biennial Conference at MPUAT, Udaipur from 1-3 March 2017 on the theme Role of weed science in doubling the farmers income by 2022. The theme was deliberately chosen following the clarion call given by our Prime Minister to double the farmers' income by 2022. Contributions from different sectors and disciplines will be needed to realize the national objective. I am happy the that ISWS was the first one to respond and contribute to this national goal- the idea the other Societies are trying to emulate. Dr. Mruthyunjaya, former National Director ICAR-NAIP gave the keynote address. Not often we have a non-weed scientist as a keynote speaker.

In the end, I must say that it has been a very satisfying association with ISWS. I am happy that I contributed in my own little way to the discipline and to the Society. In recognition, I am delighted that the Society admitted me to the Fellowship (2001) and honoured me with the Gold Medal (2004). I will cherish the good memories of my association with the ISWS for ever. I will be around and will be pleased to extend whatever help and guidance required by anyone.

Prof. Mahesh K. Upadhyaya

PhD, FWSSA, FCWSS, FCSA, FISWS, Professor, Applied Biology, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, #325 - 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada, | Ph.: 604-822-6139 | E-mail: upadh@mail.ubc.ca

My memories with ISWS

Since I left India nearly five decades ago, I have been mostly involved in activities of American and Canadian professional societies. However, during this period, I have keenly monitored activities of the Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS). I have been truly impressed with its professional activities and a very productive and enthusiastic executive. They have indeed made the society a very professional and vibrant organization, with a respectable journal and many weed-related publications. It has been organizing well-attended biennial meetings, facilitating interaction among Indian as well as international weed scientists.
I became a Life Member of this society and had the good fortune of attending the ISWS and the Asia Pacific Society of Weed Science joint meeting in Hyderabad in 2015. The meeting was well organized and attended, with sumptuous food and great hospitality. Joining this society has provided to me a venue for interacting with weed scientists in India and do some work for the society. I am pleased to have served the Society as a member of some of its committees, including the Editorial Board, and evaluating nominations for its various awards.
With my interest in non-chemical weed management and the desire to promote work in this area, it was my pleasure to endow a lecture on non-chemical weed management at the biennial meetings of ISWS. I look forward to continue to contribute to the goals of this society in future. I wish the society all the best.

Dr Prasanta C. Bhowmik

Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA | E-mail: pbhowmik@umass.edu

My association and memories with ISWS

First, let me thank all past Presidents, Secretaries, Executive and Council members, including other supporting groups for their services over the last several decades. Because of their dedicated service, we are today at when celebrating the Golden Jubilee in 2018. The Indian Society of Weed Science served its purpose in providing awareness of weeds and their impacts on crops, humans and the environment. The ISWS should be proud of having the largest number of weed scientists from academia, governments, private industry research scientists, students, educators, extension educators and others as compared to any other weed science societies in Asian countries.
I would like to make brief comments on my memories with some of the leaders either in ISWS or at the ICAR Directorate. I had good interactions with several Past Presidents of ISWS.
Prof. S.K. Mukhopadhyay, President of ISWS (1987-1988), Viswa Bharati, West Bengal: Prof. Mukhopadhyay was my 'First Guru” of weed science at Bidhan Chandra Krishi ViswaVidhyalaya (formerly known as Kalyani University). He really inspired me to pursue my career in the area of weed science discipline. Under his guidance, I completed my first field research project “Weed control in rice with STAM F-34”. We published a paper (my first paper). Further, he insisted me to pursue my MS program in Agronomy at IARI in 1965.
Prof. V.S. Mani, President (1977-78): Prof. Mani was my “Second Guru” of weed science. During my M.S. program at IARI, New Delhi (1965-1966), Prof. Mani was one of committee members for my MS thesis in Agronomy with Mexican wheat “Sonora 63”. I gained enormous experience with Prof. Mani, especially in writing review articles “Term Papers” such as weed control in vegetable crops and other areas of weed science.
Dr. V.M. Bhan, ISWS President (1995-1998) and Director, ICAR -Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur: I had many interactions with Dr. Bhan in relation to current and potential research in weed science in India. As he requested, I provided inputs for the 20-year plan for weed science research in India. I thought that the Perspective Plan would provide meaningful role and promote weed management strategies in India.
Dr. RK Malik, President (2006-2007): I had casual interactions at various weed science related areas at national or international conferences. I enjoyed sharing his inspiring inputs and thoughts in adopting minimum- or no-tillage wheat or other crops in Hisar and other parts of India.
Dr. NT Yaduraju, ISWS President (2008-2010): As Director of ICAR- Directorate of Weed Research (2001 2005), I have good interactions with him regarding weed science related prospective in India. We had special relationship as a weed scientist when Dr. Yaduraju received the FAO Fellowship for his tenure for several months at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He completed a research project on resistant Phalaris minor, and he published an excellent refereed journal article. I must mention about his wonderful family. Mrs. Usha Yaduraju came to Amherst with two young daughters. We established a special bond with their daughters and our children. We are fortunate that we still have connections with Yaduraju family.
Dr. Jay G Varshney (2008-2009; 2010-2011): His service as President of ISWS and Director at ICAR Directorate of Weed Science Research was very critical during the transition of the Indian Society of Weed Science. I had good collaborations with him during the Biennial Conference in Bihar Veterinary College, Patna. I was invited to speak on “Spread and management of quarantine and invasive weeds” as a lead speaker. The conference was a successful one. I have special memories in visiting The Ancient University of Nalanda, “An Ancient Center of Learning in India”. The site was incredible with learning centers along with their living quarters for students and teachers.
Dr. TV Muniyappa, President, ISWS (2011-2012): I was invited to speak at the Biennial Conference at the Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala. Unfortunately I could not participate in the conference because of my teaching assignments at the Univ. of Massachusetts. I would like to thank Dr. Muniyappa, Dr. Sushil Kumar and the Indian Society of Weed Science to bestow 2011-12 ISWS Fellow Award at the conference.
Dr. NT Yaduraju, President of ISWS and APWSS (2015-2016): Dr. Yaduraju hosted the 25th.APWSS Conference in Hyderabad. The conference was one the best among other APWSS conferences, I participated in previously. His contribution in hosting the conference was memorable. I had real interactions with many of our colleagues as well as with younger generation of scientists in this discipline.
Finally, I would like to make comments about the ICAR Directorate of Weed Science Research, Jabalpur, the venue for Golden Jubilee celebration in 2018. The Directorate reflects weed science discipline with many areas of interests from farmers, educators, scientists, government agencies, and private industries. I am sure that the Directorate has provided meaningful role in developing and promoting weed management techniques along with IPM plans and potential biological control strategies. And the Directorate will continue to do so as this is reflected in the latest Perspective Plan “Vision–2050”. In my view, I strongly feel that there are more challenges and opportunities in developing transfer of technologies that would be more meaningful to all farmers and growers.
I wish the Directorate and the ISWS great success in the future. I am excited to be a part of the Golden Jubilee Celebration in Jabalpur. I hope that the deliberations, discussions and recommendations drawn from the conference will immensely benefit all

Dr C.T. Abraham

Former Professor, College of Horticulture, Vellanikara, Thrissur - 680654 (Kerala) | Mobile: 9388552466 | E-mail: ctabraham@yahoo.com

My association with Indian Society of Weed Science

Indian society of weed science has been giving a great service to the scientists and students engaged in research in weed science. It coordinates all concerned with weeds and weed management, and assumes the leadership role by organizing conferences at regular intervals and publishing the Indian journal of weed science with research papers on latest developments in weed science. I feel proud to have associated with the ISWS for quite a long period.
My association with the leading weed scientists of India started while doing my Ph.D. programme at IARI during 1979- '82 period. My guide, Dr. S.P. Singh (sorghum agronomist), accepted my desire to work on a topic on weed management, and included the leading weed scientists Prof. V.S. Mani and Dr. (Mrs.) Githa Kulshrestha in my advisory committee Their advices helped a lot in developing me as a weed scientist. After Ph.D. programme, I returned back to Kerala Agricultural university, and was put in charge of the weed control programmes of the university, When ICAR allotted the AICRP-WC Thrissur centre to KAU in 1986, I was posted in it, and I continued in weed science till my retirement in 2014. This gave me ample opportunities for interaction with all leading weed scientists in India and to contribute for the activities of ISWS. I could enroll many scientists and students from Kerala as Life Members of ISWS. For many years I served the society as the Councillor for Kerala. I also got an opportunity to work as the Vice President of ISWS during 2011-'13. I could act as the organizing Secretary for the Biennial Conference of the society in 2012, at Thrissur. I am grateful to the society f or honouring me by awarding Fellow of ISWS (2012), and ISWS Gold Medal(2015).
The start of the AICRP on Weed Control by the ICAR in 1978 was a boost for the development of ISWS. The society and the project were complementary, as most of the scientists working in the AICRPWC were members of the ISWS also. Many times, the workshop of AICRPWC as well as the Biennial Conference of ISWS were conducted together, for the convenience of the members and to ensure good participation. The start of the NRCWS (now the Directorate of Weed Research) at Jabalpur paved the way for a coordinating centre for weed research and the society senior members of executive committee had wisely decided to shift its headquarters to DWSR from HAU, Hissar.
I was lucky to get chance to organise the workshop of AICRPWC in 1989 and in 2012 (also of Biennial Conference of ISWS), This gave me an opportunity to meet the senior weed scientists of the country like Dr. VM Bhan, Dr. VN Saraswat, Dr. S Sankaran, Dr. CM Singh, Dr. SK Mukhopadhyaya, Dr. K Krishnamurthy, Dr. RK Malik and many others. I cherished my association with these seniors as well as the encouragement given by them to my research activities.
The International and National Conferences organized by the society give the opportunities to weed scientists to present their research activities and to interact with experts in the field. I am grateful to the society for inviting me to present a talk on genetic engineering of herbicide tolerant crops in the International Conference at Hissar in 1993 (as I had done Post Doctorate research in this area under the Biotechnology, and National Associateship was awarded by the DBT, Govt. of India. The Society also honoured me by giving chances to chair sessions in many national conferences as well as in the APWSS conference held at Hyderabad in 2015.
ISWS is now encouraging budding weed scientists by sponsoring students for attending the conferences, conducting competitions for students by regional units and giving award for best Ph.D. thesis in weed science. I am happy to note that two of my students (Dr. Musthafa,K. and Dr. Nimmy Jose) were selected for the Best Ph.D. Thesis award.
Now the ISWS is flourishing well with good leadership and a large number of members. The Journal is also being published regularly with good research papers of high standard on topics of current importance in all the fields of weed science. I hope it will help to improve NAAS ratings also in future. Congratulations to the current executive committee. I wish all the best for the progress of the society.

Dr A.R. Sharma

Presently Director Research, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central, Agricultural University, Jhansi 284003, Uttar Pradesh, Former Secretary, ISWS (2013-2016), Former Director, ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur | Mobile: 9425807290 | E-mail: sharma.ar@rediffmail.com

My memories with ISWS

It is a happy occasion that the Indian Society of Weed Science is completing 50 years of establishment and organizing the Golden Jubilee International Conference at the ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur during 21-24 November, 2018. The ISWS is one of the oldest professional societies in the field of agricultural sciences in India. Its beginning coincided with the Green Revolution during late 1960s when herbicides like isoproturon in wheat and butachlor in rice began to be applied by the farmers for controlling weeds in the high productivity regions of the country. Weed scientists of that era deserve appreciation for taking the lead to envision the importance of weed control and initiating courses in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate degree programmes in Agronomy. The Society faced serious financial crisis and struggled for survival in the early years. However, some stalwarts in weed science spearheaded the Society activities by publishing the Indian Journal of Weed Science without a break and organizing workshops / symposia on a regular basis.
I had inclination towards weed science from the beginning of my B.Sc. Agriculture degree programme. I opted for weed control as my area of research during M.Sc. degree programme under the guidance of Dr. O.P. Vats, who himself worked under the guidance of Dr. M.K. Moolani, one of the founders of ISWS. Based on this research, I published two research articles, one each in the Indian Journal of Weed Science and Indian Journal of Agronomy in the 1980s. After I started my active research as a scientist, I remained associated with weed science, though I could not really become a hard core weed specialist.
My first major association with the ISWS was the participation in the Indo-Pak Joint Weed Science Conference at the Agricultural Research Station, Durgapura during 1986, when I also made an oral presentation on weed control in field peas. Subsequently, I attended the International Symposium on Integrated Weed Management at HAU, Hissar in 1992, and the National Symposium at PAU, Ludhiana in 1997 when I formally joined the ISWS as Life Member. Thereafter, I remained a bit away from the ISWS activities as the Society also passed through a difficult phase when it got divided into two factions. It is best to forget that period as it also brought a bad name to the Directorate of Weed Research.
When I joined as Director, DWR in March 2012, the Society headquarter had partially shifted to Jabalpur but some issues such as bank account, journal articles, society records, etc. were still pending at Hisar. There was an interim Executive Committee decided mutually by the two warring factions to run the Society till the next elections due in late 2012. Being at Jabalpur, it was inevitable for me to remain dissociated from the Society activities. My first official engagement was to participate in the Selection Committee meeting for the ISWS awards soon after joining. I was not satisfied with the procedure followed for selecting the awardees, and repented later for joining this Committee. I attended the ISWS Conference during April 2012 at the Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur which was combined with the Annual Workshop of AICRP on Weed Control.
Interim Executive Committee of ISWS (2011-2012) was primarily mandated to hold the elections in a free, fare and transparent manner. I was persuaded to file my nomination for Secretary because the Director's association was considered necessary to run the Society at Jabalpur. Although I was quite reluctant to be part of the ISWS considering the happenings of the past, I agreed with the condition that if the bitter past reappears, I will immediately quit. Finally the new Executive Committee under the Presidentship of Dr. N.T. Yaduraju took over in early 2013.
It was a very good experience to serve as Secretary, ISWS for two consecutive terms (2013-14 and 2015-16) under the guidance and leadership of Dr. N.T. Yaduraju. We made every effort to take out the ISWS from the unpleasant past by adopting the policy of 'Forget and forgive'. However, some disgruntled elements tried to raise their head again but these were ignored in the larger interest of the Society. As Secretary, Indian Society of Agronomy during 2007-08, I had made some good contributions, which are remembered and appreciated by many even today. This experience came in handy for raising the status of ISWS, particularly the rating of Indian Journal of Weed Science. Although it was difficult for me to spare enough time considering my prime responsibility as Director, ICAR-DWR, I tried to contribute my bit to bring the Society to a much higher platform over a period of 4 years. Dr. N.T. Yaduraju was fully devoted to the cause of the ISWS and several activities were organized to improve the visibility and standing of the ISWS not only at the national level but also at the international level.
The major contributions of the Executive Committee during the period from 2013-2016 were as follows:
The ISWS organized a mega event, the 25th APWSS Conference from 13-15 October, 2015 at the PJT State Agricultural University, Hyderabad. This Conference was the biggest of all in the history, with participation of nearly 800 scientists including about 150 from overseas.
Several publications were brought out during the 25th APWSS conference: (i) Weed Science in the Asian-Pacific Region, (ii) Weed Science for Sustainable Agriculture, Environment and Biodiversity, (iii) Weed Science Societies of Asian-Pacific Region, (iv) Souvenir, (v) Special issue of Indian Farming on weeds, and (vi) Special issue of Indian Journal of Weed Science on the theme of the Conference.
The ISWS generated a total revenue of Rs. 121.65 lakhs, of which Rs. 65.14 lakhs was spent during the APWSS Conference, thus saving an amount of Rs. 56.51 lakhs. A sum of Rs. 4.99 lakhs was donated to the APWSS as 10% of the registration fee. Thus, the ISWS become the first Society in the Asia-Pacific region to follow this norm and set an example for others.
Total fixed deposits of the ISWS were only about Rs. 30 lakhs in 2012, which swelled to nearly Rs. 1.0 crore by 2016, thus putting the Society on a strong financial position.
NAAS rating of IJWS, which was only 2.9 in 2012, was raised to 3.94 in 2013-14 and a respectable 5.17 in 2015-16. Since early 1980s, only two issues of the journal were being brought out in a year by merging 1&2 and 3&4. From 2012 onwards, all the 4 issues in a year with good quality papers taking due care in reviewing / editing besides adding the journal in more abstracting databases were brought out.
A book on 'Weed Science and Management' was brought out in collaboration with the Indian Society of Agronomy. This was the first such joint publication between the ISA and ISWS for the PG students majoring in Agronomy / Weed Science.
Weed scientists from India and abroad came forward to contribute financially for the cause of ISWS: Dr. Mahesh K. Upadhyaya (Rs. 1.0 lakh), Dr. A.N. Rao (Rs. 1.0 lakh), Dr. TV Muniyappa (Rs. 1.0 lakh), Dr. Megh Singh (Rs. 1.0 lakh) and Dr. B.S. Chauhan (Rs. 35,000). Besides all the members of EC, scientists of DWR, and also a few other ISWS members contributed their one day salary towards the "ISWS Student Travel Grant Fund", another innovative step by the Society. Dr. B.S. Chauhan proposed a contribution of Rs. 1.0 lakh for the Best Paper Award published in the IJWS. A similar offer was also made by Dr. L.S. Brar.
Initiatives were taken to sponsor participation of Post-graduate students in the ISWS Conferences. Five students were sponsored for participation in the 25th APWSS Conference, and 10 students were sponsored during the ISWS Conference held at MPUAT, Udaipur in 2017. It was also decided to sponsor the participation of two ISWS members in the International Conferences abroad in due course.
ICAR grant for the ISWS, which was suspended due to the conflict in the past, was restored. Annual grant of Rs. 0.75 lakh was received towards publishing of the journal during 2015-16 after a gap of many years.
Cash awards of Rs. 10,000 to the "ISWS Young Scientist Award" and Rs. 5000 to the "ISWS Best Ph.D. Thesis Award" were approved and conferred from the biennium 2014-15.
The ISWS co-organized with ABLE-AG a brain storming session on Herbicide Tolerant Crops in Indian Agriculture – Prospects and Way Forward at NASC, New Delhi in August 2016.
The ISWS awards were decided strictly based on merit and the score card by the members of the Judging Committee. In-position members of the Executive Committee were not considered for the Society awards unlike in the past.
Members' particulars including Email / mobile number were updated for nearly 100% of the members. The ISWS became the first Society to conduct elections through e-voting in 2016-17.
Society website was improved and made more dynamic with several new user-friendly features, uploading of all journal articles, publications, membership details etc. The ISWS moved towards paperless secretariat and cashless transactions.
Society registration was renewed at Bengaluru and all the pending payments were cleared due to the untiring efforts made by Dr. T.V. Ramachandra Prasad and Dr. T.V. Muniyappa.
Councilors' hands were strengthened by providing a grant of Rs. 10,000 per annum. Several events with students / guest lectures were organized under the banner of ISWS.
Confidence of new members in the ISWS was restored as about 200 additional members were enrolled each during 2015 and 2016.
Considering the above achievements, the period from 2013-2016 can rightly be regarded as the one from 'darkness to glory' in the 50 years history of the ISWS.
When I look back, I feel immensely satisfied that our team led by Dr. N.T. Yaduraju did really great to bring out the ISWS to a respectable status and be counted as one of the best managed professional society in the field of agricultural sciences in India. I have not been associated with the Society activities since I left in early 2017, but I hope that the present Executive Committee has continued the good work and taken further initiatives to reach the limits of sky.
I convey my greetings to all members of the ISWS and wish the Golden Jubilee International Conference all success. May the ISWS grow to greater heights and solve the problem of weeds in Indian agriculture.

Dr V. Pratap Singh

Professor Agronomy, Department of Agronomy, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145, U.S. Nagar, Uttarakhand | Mobile: 9411159669 | E-mail: singh.virenderpratap@gmail.com

My memories: ISWS marching ahead

Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS) was established in the year 1968. Since its inception, it is gaining strengths to strengths and working for advancement of weed science and giving several avenues to weed workers and students to develop professional competence. In my opinion every member is the society's strength and has the ability to contribute in his own way for development of society. The mission of Indian society of weed science is primarily educational and informational. We also publish our journal and give awards to weed science researchers to keep them motivated.
I take great pride in assuming president of this society and thank each and every member for the confidence bestowed upon me. But this journey started long back during my student life when I obtained life memberships in the year 1982. Since my work during both M.Sc. Ag. and Ph.D. programme was on weed management I thought of joining a professional society so as to get connected with fellow scientists. Later on, I joined GBPUAT, Pantnagar as faculty in 1986. Since then I am working on various aspects of weed management, I have guided eight M.Sc. Ag. and five Ph.D. students who are working now in several key positions.
Though the society has achieved many landmarks, still with my experiences in the weed management field, I would like to say that lot of ahead to go. What we have achieved since late seventies till today was great and greatest yet to come. Since last 25 years, we are very freely discussing the solutions for weeds management and every scientists working and associated with ISWS must be acknowledged that their wisdom and untiring scientific efforts have given today farmers to rely on the several recommendations passed on not only for different agro-climatic zone crops and cropping systems but alien weeds, nuisance weeds, non-eco-friendly weeds etc. But, for all these fragmented findings, a platform was needed to combine all theses threads into flying high kite, which can be visible to everyone and thankfully that platform for all the stakeholders like scientist, students, farmers and agrochemical industry etc., in the country and across the border has come up with name of Indian Society of Weed Science.
We have achieved a lot by reducing the weed losses to crops particularly in major crops from 33% to 8-12% only as our previous annual reports from different centers speak, but a lot still to do. The facts like organic farming solutions, conservation agriculture, pulses and water bodies, herbicidal residue in food chain are still challenges for the present and coming generation to give appropriate answer.
I am quite humble and thankful for recognizing my extensive services in the field of weed management by conferring me fellow award for the year 2003-2004 and Gold medal for the year 2012. As a life member, I thought developing and expanding the society by encouraging budding weed scientists to become life members of Indian Society of Weed Science. I also initiated the participation of students/staff for the presentation of research work in ISWS Biennial conferences. Also encouraged some of the staff members by providing financial help from the various projects for the participation in the ISWS/APWSS conference in India/Abroad. I have also tried to make linkages with other Institutions, private NGOs and also contributed financial support to organize ISWS programmes. I have also visited eight countries and highlighted various programmes of ISWS during my overseas visit.
As president of the society, my priorities will be to develop more transparency in the functioning of society, greater memberships and improving quality of Indian Journal of Weed Science. The cutting edge research in the field of weed science with more emphasis on environment and ecology will be the motto for future research.
Hope I will get support of you all in achieving above goals.

Dr R.M. Kathiresan

Director Research and Development, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar- 608 002 (Tamil Nadu) | Mobile: 9.655188233 |E-mail: rmkathiresan.agron@gmail.com

My memories with ISWS

I am happy to share pleasant memories of my association with Indian Society of Weed Science. I gratefully acknowledge the seed of scientific flavour sown in me exclusively by Indian Society of Weed Science through it's annual conference in Banaras Hindu University in 1984. I was a PG student attending the conference, listening to Weed Science Luminaries. After my entry in to the Professional career of an agronomy and weed science teacher, I travelled alone all the way to Jorhat, for attending the Biennial Conference of ISWS in 1986. Thereafter, I was regular in attending the ISWS Conferences.
All my research throughout my Post Graduate, Doctoral, Post Doctoral studies were in alignment with Weed Science that terminated in my Doctor of Science degree in weed science. I should also place on record my gratitude for ISWS for awarding me with ISWS Fellowship in 2003 and later in 2006 with Gold Medal.
I also recall my association with the Directors of Directorate of Weed Research, Dr. VM Bhan, Dr. NT Yaduraju and Dr. AR. Sharma. I had been moving as a friend (getting benefitted by their knowledge) with leading weed Scientists of India like Dr. OP Gupta, Dr. RK Malik, Dr. LS Brar and Dr. Samundar Singh because of ISWS. It is always a pleasant nostalgia to recall my involvement as Organising Secretary of ISWS conference at Annamalai University in 1995 and then in a Weed Science Conference in 2000 in Delhi, wherein I had the opportunity of hosting the Weed Scientists of the Nation. I also had the pleasure of serving to the society in the capacities of Joint Secretary, Newsletter Editor and Chief Editor of the Journal.

Dr C. Chinnusamy

Professor of Agronomy & PI, AICRP-WM, Department of Agronomy, TNAU, Coimbatore - 641 003 | Email: chinnusamy.c@tnau.ac.in

My memories with ISWS

Indian Society of Weed Science, fondly abbreviated as ISWS by all the passionate weed scientists of India, has its own uniqueness in the field of weed science research and development. As a Life member of ISWS since 2000 onwards, I observe the growth of Indian Society of Weed Science in leaps and bounds in the field of weed science research and education at national level. The learned members of this great professional society under the guidance of senior stalwarts who are all of international repute, have toiled to build the strength and development of this professional organization. We have proved our strength of organizing national and international events in weed science with high order of fruitful deliberations, and the most successful one was the 25th APWSS Conference 2015 organized by ISWS at Hyderabad in 2015. It's really a remarkable accomplishment achieved by the great ISWS. In addition to this, many more worth mentioning conferences have been organized by the team of national and international Weed Scientists under the banner of ISWS. The mentionable achievement made by the ISWS is the quality publication of updated Indian Journal of Weed Science with high grade of rating given by the concerned authority organizations.
The recognition of the learned members of ISWS contributions, by conferring many awards and medals by the Society are of worth praising. Encouragements given to the young budding weed scientists of our nation by way of travel grant support and best thesis and best poster awards is the important milestone in the history of ISWS. The society has made many more achievements of developments in the field of weed science; including weed ecology and biology, herbicidal and integrated weed management in crops and cropping systems, herbicide residues and impact of weed management technologies in different ecosystems through conferences, seminars and symposia and periodic workshops as well.
As an ISWS executive member for a decade, I am bound to acknowledge the support, participation and encouragements given by our learned ISWS members for the development of Weed Science in India.
I wish that Weed Science should grow through Indian Society of Weed Science so as not to allow weeds to grow in every ecosystem of the country.

Dr A.S. Rao

Comptroller, A.N.G.R. Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur- 522 034 (A.P.) | Mobile: 9959347340 |E-mail: atlurisrao@gmail.com

My association and memories with ISWS

My association with Indian Society of Weed Science dates back to 1983, when I started working at Weed Science division, Agriculture College, Bapatla. At that time, the Indian Journal of Weed Science was printed at Sri Lakshmi Press, Bapatla. Dr.VS Rao was the Chief Editor and who used to reside at Vijayawada, which is about 80 km from Bapatla. I got on opportunity to look after the proof reading of Journal for the period printed at Bapatla. During that period, I got an excellent opportunity to interact with the legendary person of Dr.VS Rao from whom I learnt a lot on Weed Science and several other issues of society.
During my Ph.D. studies at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, I got an opportunity to insight in to ISWS affairs as my chairman Dr. RP Singh used to be the treasurer of the society, who became later the President of the Society also. Further, when I was working as Assistant Professor, Agricultural College, Bapatla after my Ph.D. Studies, I got again an opportunity to work with Dr. SM Kondap, who also worked as Treasurer in early stage of the Society. Both of them used to say a lot how the society struggled financially in the earlier stages, even for printing of the Journal some times.
During the last three decades, I attended almost all the conferences organized by ISWS. During these three decades, I got opportunities to interact with several eminent Weed Scientists like Drs. OP Gupta, SK Mukhopadhyay, VS Rao, VM Bhan, LS Brar, S. Sankaran, SM Kondap, KN Rao, RP Singh, CM Singh, Govindra Singh, RK Malik, NT Yaduraj, TV Muniyappa, RM Kathiresan, AN Rao, AR Sharma and several other scientists. One cannot forget the yeoman services rendered by Dr. TV Muniyappa during the turbulent periods who strived a lot personally for unity of the society. In my opinion, because of his untiring efforts coupled with the cooperation of several others , the society is now on right track. I hope the society will flourish well and discharge its duties effectively for the cause of Weed Science in future.

Dr Sushil Kumar

Principal Scientist, ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research &
Secretary, Indian Society of Weed Science, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 482 004 | Email: sknrcws@gmail.com

My memories with ISWS

My association with weeds started long back from my childhood at the age of about 10 years , when I came to live in my village with my uncle family from the city due to my father's transfer in a remote place of present Uttarakhand from Pilibheet (UP). It is true that in a farmer's family everybody has to work either he is child or adult. I remember to mechanically remove the weeds with my cousins from between the rows by using a mechanical tools fixed with long wooden handle. Initially, we children used to enjoy working with the tools like a play, but soon realized that it is a tough work, not a play. We were taken by our grandfather to the field of sugarcane to remove the grasses with the help of spade(now I know that it was Cyperus rotundus). It was also a hard task, but my grandfather always persuaded to continue the work. We used to tire soon, but I still recall that my grandfather used to work for long time to remove weeds with the help of Khurpi. After living two years in village, I was again taken back to city by my father and thus my active association with weeds became off due to living in a quarter in the city of Kanpur without any field to work where weed could grow.
My active association with weeds again started when I joined Forest Research Institute for pursuing my Ph.D in Dehradun. In search of termite mound, we used to go into dense forests. I remember my first encounter with dense thickets of Lanatana camara in Asarodi forest of Dehradun. It was very hard to make our way amidst the sprawling Lantana. During my eight and half years of forest association in FRI, it was a routine encounter with many forest weeds. I was selected in Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in 1991 and joined Potato Research Institute, Shimla in 1992 after my ARS training. I prepared an exhaustive review on 'Biological control of forest and wasteland weeds in India' In 1993, and it was my first paper on weed. During this work, I consulted Indian Journal of Weed Science many times in the library of Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) without knowing that one day I am going to be part of this journal.
My active association with weed scientists started from 11 April 1994, when I joined National Research Center for Weed Science (NRCWS), Jabalpur on my transfer from CPRI, Shimla on my own request because my wife Neelu Singh was working as scientist in Tropical forest Research Institute. I became a part of ISWS when I became member in 1995. My period from 1995 to 2007 was smooth as a scientist in NRCWS. However, during this period, I got opportunity to meet almost all the prominent weed scientists of India. Between this period, I also got the opportunity to be associated in publication of 'Weed News' which was started from NRCWS by Late Dr. VM. Bhan. I played active role to obtain its ISSSN No. and also succeeded to get it abstracted in CABPEST. But, it was closed after joining of Dr. N.T Yaduraju as Director of NRCWS, keeping in view that a 'Weed News' was also being published from ISWS. I think, it was well thought decision.
My active association with ISWS started in 2007 during the turmoil period of ISWS, when I was made Secretary of Jabalpur factions. However with the wisdom of all the seniors weed scientists like Drs. RK. Malik, RP. Singh, NT Yaduraju, Jay G. Varsheny, TV. Muniyappa, TV Ramchandra Prasad, Kalyan Moorty, this issue was amicably resolved. I appreciate the role played by all the above, but especially by late Dr.TV Muniyappa and Dr. TV Ramchandra Prasad. They also played significant role to renew the registration in Bengaluru.
An interim Executive Committee was constituted under the leadership of Dr. Muniyappa as President, Dr. TV Ramachandra Prasad as vice-President, myself Secretary, Dr. VP Singh Treasurer and Dr. Samunder Singh as Chief Editor. Dr. Muniyappa was very humble and supportive person. The main responsibility of this interim EC was to conduct fair election, which was done to the satisfaction of all. I appreciate the role played by Dr. Devraj Arya while working in Monsanto. New executive took the charge under the leadership of Dr. Yadjuraju as president and Dr. AR Sharma as Secretary. The happy beginning was made at DWR by showing the gesture of welcoming new EC by bouquets from the members of interim EC. This practice was followed in forthcoming conference at MPUAT, Udaipur during handing over the charges to new EC.
My most significant role in ISWS started when new EC entrusted me the job of Chief Editor of Indian Journal of Weed Science. I recall that this sort of faith was also shown on me by a Dehradun based 'Jyoti Publisher', when the publisher wanted to start a new Journal 'Annals of Forestry' with me as Chief Editor. This association remained up to three years because I left Dehradun due to my selection in ARS. This association with Annals of Forestry helped me tremendously to discharge my duties as Chief Editor of IJWSS. I also got the opportunity in 1995 to attend a training programme for Forestry Editors at Bogor Indonesia, sponsored by Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). My editing skills were further sharpened while working with Dr. Jay G. Varsheny and Dr. A.R Sharma. I especially enjoyed working with Dr. Sharma for IJWS and learnt a lot like not to ignore even comma, full stop etc, particularly while editing references of an article. When I took the charge as Chief Editor, its NAAS rating was 2.90 in 2012-13, which was enhanced to 3.94 in 2014 and 5.17 in 2017. This could be possible due to our sincere efforts like to publish all the four issues timely, good editing and printing and efforts to cite the articles published in IJWS in references to enhance its citation rate besides strictly adopting doi no. I wish that our journal should get rating more than 6.0 in future, which I am sure can be achieved by doing more concentrated efforts. I am especially thankful to Mr. Gyanendra Pratap Singh, Office Manager of ISWS, who has become an asset for us and playing a significant role to discharge day to day work of the society in very efficient manner besides maintaining ISWS website.
I was again elected as the Secretary for the term of 2017-2018. I am trying my best to enhance the overall image of ISWS by adopting fair and transparent working. I am thankful to my President Dr. V.P. Singh and other EC members for bestowing faith in me in discharging duties of Secretary at headquarter.

  1. O.P. Gupta
    I witnessed the founding of ISWS in 1968. From there on, I saw it progressing, despite initial hiccups, tremendously. Conferences, actively attended, have always been a huge success. Its flagship, IJWS, now maintains high quality and standard. The Society, of which I was fortunate to play a prominent part for many years, had the distinction of successfully organizing APWSS Conferences twice (1981, 2015). I extend my best wishes to the Society as it organizes the 2020 Conference at Goa.
  2. V.S. Rao
    My association with ISWS started during the mid-1970s when I started my career as Agronomist (Weed Science) with ICRISAT. I had an opportunity to participate in the revitalization of the then dormant ISWS along with Dr. Santiago Obien, FAO Consultant in Weed Science by organizing the ISWS Conference in1977 in Hyderabad. I am pleased to note that since then ISWS has grown into one of India's leading agricultural science societies. By organizing regular national and international Conferences and publishing the high-quality IJWS which highlights the advances in Weed Management in India and abroad ISWS plays an important role in sustainable agricultural development in India. It is heartening to note that ISWS encourages the weed scientists to focus more towards integrated weed management in farming systems considering evolving challenges such as environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, climate change, and also technology advances such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology... I wish the ISWS great success in serving its stakeholders including farmers of India.
  3. S.V.R. Shetty
    Weed management has turned from no weed management in early 1970s to chemical weed management in late 1970s and to the accelerated development of herbicide resistance in early 1990s and to the development of cross resistance now. On the whole weed scientists have decoupled weed science from herbicides based management to agronomy based weed management including the evolution of zero tillage technology. The weed science will flourish when each of us keep innovating with the changing needs of farmers.
  4. Mahesh K. Upadhyaya
    I am truly impressed with professional activities of ISWS and its very enthusiastic executive. The society publishes a quality journal and organizes well attended professional meetings. I am very pleased with my association with ISWS and look forward to contributing to its goals. I wish it all the best.
  5. Prasanta C. Bhowmik
    The ISWS is serving well in providing awareness of weeds and their impacts on crops, humans, and the environment. The ISWS must boost the public image of the society. More challenges and opportunities are ahead in developing transfer of technology to stakeholders. We are very proud of ISWS
  6. NT Yaduraju
    It was my good fortune that I was asked to work with legendary Prof. VS Mani, who was synonymous with weed science in India at that time. He was instrumental in grooming a generation of weed scientists including S Sankaran and MM Hosmani. My early memories of ISWS was that of attending the Biennial Conference held at Hyderabad and next at Parbhani.
  7. A.N. Rao
    Our ISWS is a: Weed Science promoting research exchange platform for Weed Scientists; professional development center for its members and students; source of practical weed management technology to the farmers and “weeds and weed management knowledge hub” for all. I wish ISWS a great future in the service of all
  8. Nitya Nand Angiras
    The ISWS is a scientific platform for the weed scientists, pesticide industry and students to discuss emerging weed problems and developed weed management technologies for different ecosystems in conferences and publishing the same in its quality Journal. The society has grown leaps and bound over the years since its inception. It has made significant contributions to the weed science discipline in general and farmers in particular. Contributions of the society are evident from the adoption of developed weed management technologies by the farmers which have contributed significantly to the Green revolution and sustainable agriculture production in the country. My best wishes for its future endeavours
  9. R.K. Ghosh
    The Indian Society of Weed Science is a fostering research swap over the platform for all Weed Scientists and Students, a professional development center for its members, a source of innovative weed management technology to the farmers, and a pivot of weed science knowledge for all related to agriculture and allied sectors. I take pride in being a member of this prestigious society since my early academic life. I wish ISWS a tremendous success in the future and contribute to the betterment of the nation's agriculture vision helping in the gradual technological shift from LEiA- HEIA-LEISA .
  10. A.S. Rao
    The Indian Society of Weed Science, since its inception played a significant role in encouraging teaching, research and extension aspects of weed science. It provided an excellent platform through national, international conferences/symposia/seminars for discussion and dissemination of scientific developments in weed management among scientists, students, policy makers and industry. Further, the quality of scientific papers published in Indian Journal of Weed Science is very good. I wish the society will grow to greater heights and solve the weed problems in Indian Agriculture.

3rd International Weed Conference

"Weed problems and management challenges: Future perspectives"
20-23 December, 2022
Venue: Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat, INDIA

Abstract submission Learn more

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Our Testimonial

The ISWS activities have now grown so large as to organize international conferences to absorb new ideas in terms of fundamental and applied weed management research. The credit for this goes to all scientists who either toiled with some aspects of weed science in the past or are actively doing so presently. Of course, the past activities of weed scientists are memories and the present ones are the hope for future weed management.

O.P. Gupta

I witnessed the founding of ISWS in 1968. From there on, I saw it progressing, despite initial hiccups, tremendously. Conferences, actively attended, have always been a huge success. Its flagship, IJWS, now maintains high quality and standard. The Society, of which I was fortunate to play a prominent part for many years, had the distinction of successfully organizing APWSS Conferences twice (1981, 2015). I extend my best wishes to the Society as it organizes the 2020 Conference at Goa

V.S. Rao

My association with ISWS started during the mid-1970s when I started my career as Agronomist (Weed Science) with ICRISAT. I had an opportunity to participate in the revitalization of the then dormant ISWS along with Dr. Santiago Obien, FAO Consultant in Weed Science by organizing the ISWS Conference in1977 in Hyderabad. I am pleased to note that since then ISWS has grown into one of India's leading agricultural science societies. By organizing regular national and international Conferences and publishing the high-quality IJWS which highlights the advances in Weed Management in India and abroad ISWS plays an important role in sustainable agricultural development in India. I wish the ISWS great success in serving its stakeholders including farmers of India.

S.V.R. Shetty

Weed management has turned from no weed management in early 1970s to chemical weed management in late 1970s and to the accelerated development of herbicide resistance in early 1990s and to the development of cross resistance now. On the whole weed scientists have decoupled weed science from herbicides based management to agronomy based weed management including the evolution of zero tillage technology. The weed science will flourish when each of us keep innovating with the changing needs of farmers.

R.K. Malik

The ISWS is serving well in providing awareness of weeds and their impacts on crops, humans, and the environment. The ISWS must boost the public image of the society. More challenges and opportunities are ahead in developing transfer of technology to stakeholders. We are very proud of ISWS

Prasanta C. Bhowmik

The ISWS is a scientific platform for the weed scientists, pesticide industry and students to discuss emerging weed problems and developed weed management technologies for different ecosystems in conferences and publishing the same in its quality Journal. The society has grown leaps and bound over the years since its inception. It has made significant contributions to the weed science discipline in general and farmers in particular. Contributions of the society are evident from the adoption of developed weed management technologies by the farmers which have contributed significantly to the Green revolution and sustainable agriculture production in the country. My best wishes for its future endeavours

Nitya Nand Angiras

I am truly impressed with professional activities of ISWS and its very enthusiastic executive. The society publishes a quality journal and organizes well attended professional meetings. I am very pleased with my association with ISWS and look forward to contributing to its goals. I wish it all the best.

Mahesh K. Upadhyaya

It was my good fortune that I was asked to work with legendary Prof. VS Mani, who was synonymous with weed science in India at that time. He was instrumental in grooming a generation of weed scientists including S Sankaran and MM Hosmani. My early memories of ISWS was that of attending the Biennial Conference held at Hyderabad and next at Parbhani.

N.T. Yaduraju

Our ISWS is a: Weed Science promoting research exchange platform for Weed Scientists; professional development center for its members and students; source of practical weed management technology to the farmers and “weeds and weed management knowledge hub” for all. I wish ISWS a great future in the service of all

A.N. Rao

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