The ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research Jabalpur organized 24th Research Advisory Committee Meeting from 22-23 February, 2023. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Ajoy Kumar Gogoi, former Assistant Director General (Agronomy), ICAR, New Delhi. Other members were: Dr Rajbir Singh, Assistant Director General (Agronomy, Agroforestry and Climate change), ICAR, New Delhi, Dr. C. Chinnusamy, former Professor (Agronomy) & PI, AICRP-WM, TNAU, Coimbatore, Dr. AR Aneja, Ex Professor, Mycology, Kurukshetra University, Hisar; Dr. PS Badal, Professor, Agril Economics, BHU, Varanasi; Dr. PJ Suresh, Bayer Crop Science, New Delhi; and two progressive farmers namely Shri Kulkit Ramchandra from Chhattisgarh and Sri Dhruv Kumar Nayak from Madhya Pradesh.

Dr. JS Mishra, Director, ICAR-DWR while welcoming the RAC team highlighted the research accomplishment of the year 2022-23. The action taken report on the last RAC was presented by the member secretary Dr Shobha Sondhia. The scientists of the Directorate presented their salient research findings of the year 2022-23, which was appreciated by the RAC. The Committee also visited the field and laboratory experiments, interacted with the scientists and appreciated the kind of research being taken up by the Directorate. After 2-days deliberations and discussion, it was suggested by the RAC that in view of the emerging challenges in agriculture, weed management research programmes need to be strengthened.

There is a need to initiate the programmes on weed management in natural farming, application of drone technology for precision weed management, development, demonstration and upscaling of drudgery reducing weeding tools and spraying techniques for small and marginal farmers, digitization of weed management technologies for different agro-ecological regions, development of bio-herbicide products, impact assessment of improved weed management technologies, etc. The meeting ended with vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Shobha Sondhia, member secretary, RAC.