An online 10-day national training programme on “Integrated Weed Management Strategies organized by the ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur in collaboration with Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS), was inaugurated on 28 August 2024. The Chief Guest, Dr. S.K. Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management) ICAR emphasized that weed management has been a serious concern in food production. He focused on the emerging challenges in weed management in Natural Farming, Organic farming, Conservation Agriculture and Regenerative agriculture, and discussed on the new vistas in weed management such as development of non-transgenic herbicide tolerant crop varieties, agronomic manipulations, use of drones and robotics, etc. SOPs and biosafety standards of herbicides to be sprayed by drones need to be developed, he added.
Assistant Director General (Agronomy, Agroforestry and Climate Change) ICAR said that weed management is a serious issue in modern day agriculture. He urged developing sustainable weed management strategies for management of herbicide resistant weeds, weed management in direct-seeded rice, especially weedy rice and drone-based application of herbicides. Dr. J.S. Mishra, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur, and President ISWS in his opening remarks he emphasized on the importance of such training programmes in updating and adding new knowledge in weed management, especially for new scientists for developing sustainable weed management technologies.
Dr. R.P. Dubey, Secretary ISWS & In-charge, AICRP-WM welcomed the dignitaries & participants, and presented a brief outline of the training programme and about the participants. There are 356 participants registered for this training programme throughout the country. Experts from India and overseas (USA, Australia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa and Canada) have consented to share their knowledge on various aspects of weed management during this training programme. The programme was coordinated by Dr. VK Choudhary, Pr. Scientist, Dr. Archana Anokhe, Scientist and Dr Surabhi Hota, Scientist of DWR.