On 19th August 2016, Parthenium Awareness Programme was organised at village Banda of district Katni. A participation of about 200 farmers and students from different villages, viz. Banda, Lakhapateri, Bichhiya, Ghughra, Gudri, etc. graced the occasion. In his welcome address, Dr. P.K. Singh, Principal Scientist, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur described the significance of observing Parthenium Awareness Week. He also elaborated different weed management technologies developed in the Directorate.

Describing the ill effect of the weed, Dr. A.R. Sharma, Director, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur advised the villagers to make the village Parthenium-free. He furthermore described the importance of conservation agriculture practices in the present situation of escalating cost of cultivation and climate change. Information on the biology of Parthenium and its management technologies were described in length by Dr. Sushilkumar, Principal Scientists, ICAR-DWR, Jabalpur. Mr. Chaturvedi, Agriculture Department informed new schemes and subsidy being offered by state government on various agricultural inputs. Sardar Harnek Singh Grewal, who played leadership role to make first Parthenium-free village in Punjab expressed his happiness to see the huge gathering of farmers in this meeting and described his experience on the eradication of Parthenium from his village.

At this occasion, a progressive farmer Shri Heeramoni Haldkar also shared his views about the Parthenium and conservation agriculture. He appreciated the efforts made by ICAR-DWR to demonstrate the conservation agriculture in the area. Boxes of Mexican beetles were provided to selected participants representing different villages with the request to release in the respective area. Mr. A.K. Tomar, Programme Coordinator, KVK at Katni and Subject Matter Specialists participated in this event. The programme was organised by Dr. R.P. Dubey, Principal Scientist, Dr. P.P. Choudhury, Principal Scientist, Mr. C.R. Chethan, Scientist and Mr. K.K. Tiwari, Technical Assistant.