Nationwide celebration of “Parthenium Awareness Week”

Creating  awareness on troublesome dreaded weed

16-22 August, 2012

Parthenium hysterophoru, locally called gajar ghas or congress grass, is an alien weed which sneaked into India along with wheat imported from USA in the early 1950s. It was first seen in 1955-56 at Pune in Maharashtra, and since then it has spread alarmingly and invaded about 35 million ha of land in the country. This troublesome weed has been causing enormous losses in agricultural productivity human and animal health and biodiversity. 

In view of the seriousness as well as the magnitude of the threat posed by this weed, the Directorate of Weed Science Research (DWSR)  has  been organizing mass awareness programmes since 2002 to educate the farmers and general public about the ill effect of Parthenium and ways to manage it.

A nation-wide “Parthenium Awareness Week”was organized by Directorate of Weed Science Research from 16-22 August, 2012 by involving SAUs, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs), ICAR Institutes, AICRP centres of Weed control, many NGOs, municipalities, schools and colleges. To facilitate the event, posters and extension materialespecially developed for this occasion were distributed to nearly 1000 organizations throughout the country with an appeal to develop more such material in regional languages and distribute among stakeholders.      

Institutes involved organised, various activities like awareness, lectures, photo exhibitions, farmer meetings, students’ rallies, demonstrations on Parthenium management  This programme was found highly successful in creating awareness and educating the people about Parthenium, which is also recognised as the one of the seven most dreaded weeds of the world.

• Posters and extension folders on Parthenium
• Parthenium awareness programmes organised in different states

(Source: Directorate of Weed Science Research)