An international webinar on “Recent Advances in Weed Science Research” was organized on 12th March 2021 in collaboration with Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture & Research Institute (PAJANCA & RI), Karaikal, Puducherry UT. More than 200 participants from various ICAR institutes, SAU’s and private industrial partners benefitted from the webinar. Welcome address was given by Dr. AL. Narayanan, Professor & Head, Agronomy, PAJANCOA & RI. Inaugural address was given by the Dean of PAJANCOA & RI, Dr. A. Shamarao Jahagirdar, where he discussed about the major weeds in Karaikal and Puducherry. He said that bioherbicides, organic products, drone technologies are getting more attention recent agriculture. Presidential address was given by Dr. Shobha Sondhia, Principal Scientist and In-charge AICRP Weed Management, ICAR-DWR. She highlighted the importance of weed management and various research work carried out in different parts of India under this project.

Dr. J. S. Mishra Director, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur gave key note address, and he said that the herbicide resistance to the weeds has also now become a major problem and important need should be given on management of parasitic weeds; biotic weeds also. Lead talk was given by Dr. Muthukumar Bagavathiannan, Associate Professor, Weed Science & Agronomy Texas A&M University, USA. He said that weeds are a global problem in productive agriculture which is a multi billion dollar challenge in US. Most of the weeds in US are genetically modified and the most occurring weed is Rye grass. More than 70 billion dollar is used for weed controlling in US. $35 to $100 per acre is spent on hand weeding only. Usage of cover crops to control weed is the most used technique in US and is also being followed in the present where Sunnhemp is the very good cover crop responding in US climatic conditions and also adds nutrient to the soil.

The Integrated Weed Management (IWM) which is a future of sustainable weed control. The recent concept in Australia is Harvest Weed Seed Control – destroying of weeds by catching them when the weed seeds are unable to control. Manipulation of nutrients is also done to suppress the weeds and then weed suppressive or Allelopathic varieties are also cultivated to suppress the weed growth. Besides all these, there are some of the technological advancements like Aerial vehicle, Ground Robots, Sensors, Data Storage and Transfer and softwares. The application of small robots is termed as SWARM INTELLIGENCE was also discussed. In the end, Dr. P. Saravanane, Organizing secretary gave the vote of thanks.