Silver Jubilee Conference of Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society (APWSS) on “Weed Science for Sustainable Agriculture, Environment and Biodiversity’ was successfully organized during 13-16 October, 2015 at the Professor Jayshankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad. This mega event was organized by the Indian Society of Weed Science in collaboration with APWSS, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Directorate of Weed Research (DWR) and PJTSAU. Dr. A.R. Sharma, Organizing Secretary and Director, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur delivered the welcome address. Dr. N.T. Yaduraju, Convener of Conference and President of APWSS / ISWS presented an overview of the Conference in his Presidential Address. Dr. Steve Adkins, Immediate Past President, APWSS made a presentation on the nearly five decades history of the APWSS. Dr. B.S. Chauhan from University of Queensland, Australia and Dr. Puja Ray from Presidency University, Kolkata, India were awarded APWSS Young Scientist Awards.

The Conference was inaugurated on 13th October 2015 by Prof. P. Appa Rao, Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad as the Chief Guest and Dr. D. Rama Rao, Director, NAARM as the Guest of Honour. The Conference was attended by 690 registered participants including 107 from overseas and 46 from industries representing entire world. In this Conference, 11 plenary presentations were made by the stalwarts in weed science who have made a mark at the International level. In all, there were 12 technical sessions in which 16 lead presentations and 106 oral presentations were made. There were 5 satellite symposia on different emerging topics, viz. conservation agriculture, weedy rice, biological control, herbicide resistance and weed utilization. These symposia were exclusively planned and organized by the identified world renowned weed scientists as conveners. Apart from this, 627 poster presentations were made during the Conference. A judging committee examined the posters and 9 best posters were awarded representing participants from Sri Lanka India and Japan.

Silver Jubilee function of the APWSS Conferences and the book release ceremony of the special publication on “Weed Science in the Asian-Pacific Region” was held on 14th October, 2015, which was another unique event of this Conference. Field visit to the research farm of the University, Indian Institute of Rice Research and ICRISAT was also arranged by the organizers for the benefit of the delegates on 15th October, 2015. This Conference was the largest of all the APWSS conferences held so far, with delegates from 25 countries including Republic of Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand, Italy, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Germany, Philippines, United States, Nigeria, Australia, United Kingdom, China, Canada, Japan, Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, Tanzania, Taiwan and Sudan. An overview of the conference and vote of thanks was given by Dr. A.R. Sharma during the closing ceremony. It was informed that the 26th APWSS Conference will be held in Kyoto, Japan during 19-22 September, 2017 and the 27th APWSS Conference in Kuching, Malaysia in 2019.