It was a special day on 8 February, 2017, when Padma Bhushan Dr. R.B. Singh, Ex-Chairman, ASRB and President NAAS; and Dr. Panjab Singh, Ex–Director General, ICAR, and Secretary, DARE and presently President NAAS, New Delhi paid a visit to the ICAR-ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur. While Dr. Panjab Singh had visited the Directorate earlier also, it was the first visit by Dr. R.B. Singh. The dignitaries visited the infrastructure, research farm, and interacted with the staff members. They appreciated the excellent world-class facilities at the Directorate, and the research work in conservation agriculture, herbicide residues, climate change and transfer of technology.

Dr. R.B. Singh was impressed to see the work done by a small institute on conservation agriculture, and advised collaborative research in the field of weed genomics. He mentioned ‘conserve and grow’ and ‘small is always beautiful’. Dr. Panjab Singh complimented the staff members for bringing the Directorate to the present level and desired translation of the innovative technologies on the farmers’ fields. He also expressed concern over the less number of scientists, and suggested to raise the status of the Directorate to a full-fledged Institute.

Dr. A.R. Sharma, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur made a presentation on the achievements and major initiatives taken to strengthen the research and improving the visibility of the Directorate.