Annual Review Meeting of AICRP- Weed Management organized

The XXX Annual Review Meeting of AICRP Weed Management was held at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology of Jammu during May 26-27, 2023 to review the progress of AICRP-WM centres for the year 2022-23.

The Chief Guest, Dr. S.K. Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management) highlighted the importance of weed management in sustainable food system and congratulated the weed scientists for their significant contributions. He emphasized the various issues and challenges in weed management and stressed upon the need to work on emerging challenges to be linked with national priorities like natural farming, organic farming, management of herbicide resistant weeds, weed risk assessment, digital farming, artificial intelligence, precision weed management tools, drone-based application of herbicides, etc.

Prof. Nazeer Ahmad Ganai, Vice-Chancellor, SKAUST-Jammu and Kashmir urged to study the impact of weeds on crop loss and development of effective weed management technologies to minimize the extent of crop loss due to weeds. Judicious use of herbicides is essential to minimize the impact of herbicides on environment, he added.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. Rajbir Singh, Assistant Director General (Agronomy, Agroforestry and Climate change) highlighted the impact of climate change on crop-weed competition. He also emphasized the success stories of direct-seeded rice (DSR) during Covid period in Punjab and Haryana and urged the scientists to work on DSR while considering the upcoming release of herbicide tolerant rice cultivars and residue mulching technologies.

Dr. R.K. Samnotra, Director of Research, SKAUST-Jammu, in his opening remarks, highlighted the major weeds in rice, vegetable crops, pastor land, forest land, other field, and fodder crops and water bodies. He mentioned the importance of timely technological interventions and effective policy execution for minimizing weed problems in these eco-systems.

Earlier, Dr. J.S. Mishra, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur briefly mentioned about the genesis of AICRP-WM and role played by the AICRP-WM centres in developing and disseminating the weed management technologies in different crops and cropping systems in various agro-ecological regions of the country.

Ten publications on various aspects of weed management by different AICRP-WM centres were also released on the occasion.

More than 150 participants including principal investigators and scientists from AICRP-WM centres, scientists from ICAR DWR and other institutes, officials from state government, representatives from pesticide industries, faculty members and students of SKUAST-Jammu attended the inaugural programme.

Dr. R.P. Dubey, In-charge, AICRP-WM proposed the vote of thanks.

(Source: ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Maharajpur, Adhartal)