Call to weed out anti-environment practices in farms

The 25th Asia-Pacific Weed Science Society (APWSS) conference on weed science for sustainable agriculture, environment and biodiversity began on Tuesday.

About 700 delegates, including 120 people from 25 countries are attending the four-day conference.

Dr Appa Rao, Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad said that the use of pesticides is the easy method but has far-reaching consequences. Farmers need to use environment friendly techniques.

Dr Rama Rao, director, National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) stressed on the need to adapt to newer technologies.

“The conference gains in significance considering the problems that weeds cause to all types of farming,” said Dr Rao.

According to estimates, 33 per cent of crop loss in India is attributed to weeds. “The study of weeds is going on across the world and scientists would be sharing knowledge and technologies developed in the recent past,” said Dr M Madhavi, Professor and Head, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture.

The highlight of the conference is workshops on conservation agriculture, weed utilisation, biological weed management and weed science. Weed management is crucial and the first month is critical.

“Farmers spend huge sums on eliminating weeds and cost effective methods are a boon to the farmers,” said Anuradha Monga, a scientist.