As a part of ICAR National Level Campaign on “Food and Nutrition for Farmers” under ‘Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav’, ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur organized a sangosthi to the Farmers of Jabalpur district on “Khadya avam poshan suraksha me kharpatwar prabhandhan ka mahatva” at the Directorate on 26th August, 2021. A total of 184 male and female farmers from Baroda, Padariya, Barda, Umariya Choubey, Panagar etc villages of Jabalpur district, scientists and technical staff of the Directorate participated in the sangosthi. Dr P.K. Singh, Principal Scientist and Coordinator of the programme welcomed the participants and briefed about the programme. He explained the importance of food and nutritional diet to the gathering and also briefed about the role of nutrient and weed management to improve the soil health and food security. He urged the farmers to adopt effective and timely control of the weeds to achieve higher and qualitative crop yield.

Dr. J.S. Mishra, Director, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur addressed the gathering on importance of food and nutritional security among farm community. He also briefed about the various issues like production status of pulses and oil seeds, problems associated with low productivity, precautionary measures and action to be taken to improve the yield, role of weed management in assuring the nutritional status of food, milk, meat, egg, vegetables, fruits, animal and human health etc. He also thrown light on crop yield loss due to poor management of weeds, importing of oil seeds from other countries, opportunities to increase the cultivational area etc. Therefore to overcome the issues he urged to use effective weed management strategies like using improved herbicides, mechanical weeders, biological control of weeds, cultural management etc. He also emphasized on use of micro-nutrient rich varieties for achieving nutritional security.

Dr. R. P. Dubey, Principal Scientist informed the gathering about the improved varieties and the importance of adopting improved weed management technologies for obtaining food and nutritional security. Dr Sushil Kumar, Principal Scientist explained about compost and vermicompost preparation using weed biomass to improve soil health. Later on one-to-one interaction with the farmers was conducted on problems associated and solutions to overcome them in crop cultivation and weed management. Farmers were also briefed about crop cultivation other than wheat to achieve higher profit, different methodologies to manage crop residue and weeds, benefits of conservation agriculture and way to doubling the income through integrated farming. Er. Chethan, C.R., Dr. Deepak Pawar, Scientist and co-coordinators and other ICAR-DWR staff assisted in smooth conduct of the programme.