To commensurate with the Govt. of India’s mission “Bharat ka Amrut Mahotsav” commemorating 75 years of India’s Independence, a Webinar on “Harvesting of weed seeds: A novel preventive way of weed management” was organized by the ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur in collaboration with Indian Society of Weed Science (ISWS) on 28-09-2021.The lead speaker was Dr. Michael Walsh, Director Weed Research, Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney, Australia. The webinar was convened by Dr. Sushil Kumar, President, ISWS, and organized by Dr. J.S. Mishra, Director, ICAR-DWR as Organizing Secretary. The Webinar was chaired by Dr. Dr. B. Shridar, India. Dr. J.S. Mishra emphasized the need of the hour to manage weed seeds through Harvest Weed Seed Control (HWSC) technology. He was of the opinion that this technology may be very useful for organic farming to reduce the weed seed bank in the soil to manage the weeds effectively. He hoped that Dr. Walsh’s talk will stimulate the interest of weed scientists and engineers of India to focus more on HWSC technology to develop such machines for the benefits of the farmers. Dr. Shridar, Dean (Agrl. Engg.), AEC&RI, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, and Chairperson, in his addressed viewed that accumulation of weed seeds in soil is the main cause of weed infestation in future crops. Therefore, harvesting of weed seeds at the time of harvesting of crop may be one of the best preventive management strategies.

Dr. Michael Walsh very comprehensively delivered the talk covering different aspects of research and development of HWSC systems. His efforts in the area of HWSC have led to the introduction and wide adoption of the technology in the Australia. The weed seed density was recorded very less after applying of HWSC systems in comparison to control. He also discussed the benefit of this technology to minimize the herbicide resistance problem being faced due to high use of herbicides. Dr. Michael also shared his worked on the development of alternate weed control technologies for the northern grain cropping region of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia.

There was good discussion between participants and speaker after the talk. Renowned weed scientists like Dr. N.T. Yaduraju, Dr. A.N. Rao., Dr. R.M. Kathiresan, Dr. Virendra Kumar (IRRI), Dr. A.S. Rao and many other scientist interacted with the speaker. Chairman Dr. B. Shridar while summarizing the whole discussion emphasized that the knowledge of weed seed harvesting will certainly lead the better weed management practices. It may reduce the herbicide consumption and herbicide resistance problem in India and world over. More than 180 participant including scientists and students from various ICAR Institutes and Universities attended this webinar. Sushil Kumar, Convener and President, ISWS proposed the vote of thanks.