DWR organized a country-wide “Parthenium Awareness Week (PAW)” from 16-22 August, 2019 by involving all Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs), State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), institutes of ICAR, AICRP centres of Weed Management and many State Agricultural Departments, NGOs, municipalities, railway departments, schools and colleges etc. To enable the organizers, posters and extension materials, especially developed for this occasion, were distributed to about 1300 stakeholders with the appeal from the Director-DWR to observe some activities to make public aware about the weed.

During Parthenium Awareness Week, activities like lectures, photo exhibitions, farmers’ meetings, students’ rallies, uprooting of Parthenium, releasing and distribution of Parthenium eating beetle, demonstrations on management etc. were done by different institutions in different districts and villages covering almost all the states of India. Such awareness activities attracted print and electronic media to publish news and telecast in on different news channels and social media like You tube, face week, WhatsApp etc, which resulted in creating awareness among people about this dreaded weed. Reliance Foundation telecasted live programme on Parthenium on YouTube on 21st August 2019 in all north and central states of India including Telangana, which is being still viewed on the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQjAsDQrcD4&t=2550s. This programme was found highly successful in creating awareness and educating the people about the ill effects of Parthenium and the techniques of its management. ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur, organized Parthenium Awareness programmes in different villages like Guleda, Bhidari Kalan and Bargi besides uprooting programme at DWR campus and in different schools. A training-cum-awareness programme was conducted at the Directorate on 20 August 2017. About 100 farmers, city people, NGOs from adjoining districts like Balaghat, Nagpur, Narshingpur, Chiindwara, Mandla and Jabalpur participated in the programme. During PAW-2019, about one lakh Parthenium eating bioagent Zygogramma bicolorata were distributed to stakeholders with the applea to release in their localities.

At country level, In North-Eastern region of the country, programmes were organized by Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat; Central Agricultural University, Pasighat; Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidhyalya, Mohanpur; Orissa University of Agricultural and Technology, Bhubaneswar; Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa; and Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi in collaboration with KVKs, schools and colleges in the region. In Northern region of the country, universities like SKUAST, Jammu; GBPUAT, Pantnagar; CSKHPKV, Palampur; NDUAT, Kanpur; CCSHAU, Haryana; and PAU, Ludhiana did various awareness programmes in collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendras, colleges and schools. In central India, agricultural universities like IGKVV, Raipur; RVSKVV, Gwalior observed the week in collaboration with schools and colleges and KVks. In Southern India, all the agricultural universities and many KVKs organized many events in urban and rural areas to create awareness among people. The prominent universities were: ANGRAU, Hyderabad; TNAU, Coimbatore; KAU, Kerala; and University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Dharwad and Raichur. From the western part of India, awareness programmes were organized by Agricultural universities like AAU, Anand; MPUAT, Udaipur; SKRAU, Bikaner; Dr. BSKKV, Dapoli; Dr. PDKV, Akola. Many ICAR institutes, NGOs, Universities, school and colleges also created awareness among the people by organizing various events during the week.