The ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research Jabalpur organized 26th Research Advisory Committee Meeting from 3-4 March, 2025. The meeting was Chaired by Dr. Ajoy Kumar Gogoi, former Assistant Director General (Agronomy), ICAR, New Delhi. Other members were: Dr. C. Chinnusamy, former Professor (Agronomy) & PI, AICRP-WM, TNAU, Coimbatore, Dr. A.R. Aneja, Ex Professor, Mycology, Kurukshetra University, Hisar; Dr. P.S. Badal, Professor, Agril Economics, BHU, Varanasi; Dr K.K. Mishra, Retired Prof and Head, Department of Chemistry, RDVV, Jabalpur, Dr. P.J. 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 A. Velmurugan, Assistant Director General (Soil and Water Management), ICAR, New Delhi, Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Principal Scientist, NRM, ICAR, New Delhi, and scientists of the Directorate participated in the meeting. Dr. Velmurugan talked about the importance of weed management in natural farming, and suggested to develop a sound weed management programme for Narural farming system.

Dr. JS Mishra, Director, ICAR-DWR while welcoming the RAC highlighted the research accomplishment of the Directorate for the year 2024-25. 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 2024-25, 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 in the areas of Natural Farming, weed mapping, precision weed management using artificial intelligence, herbicide resistance management in weeds, Biological weed control, weed management using drones, AI and machine learning, etc. need to be strengthened. The meeting ended with vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Shobha Sondhia, Member Secretary, RAC.