Srinagar: S K University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir heled a week-long national training on Weed Science at Wadura Campus, Sopore.
The training programme ‘Advances in Weed Science under Changing Agrarian Landscape’ was conducted by the university’s Division of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture in collaboration with World Bank-ICAR funded National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP).
About 230 undergraduate, postgraduate students and PhD scholars participated in the programme. The candidates were selected from 840 registered appilicants from various State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes and officers from Department of Agriculture of different states of the country. Also five International delegates participated in this online training course.
The Chief Guest of the inaugural session, Prof. Nazeer Ahmad, Vice-Chancellor of the university addressed the trainee participants to update themselves on the advances in weed science and efficient technologies to manage weeds of field and horticultural crops. In his address, he stressed upon the participants to understand the emerging issues such as development of herbicide resistance in weeds and herbicide associated health hazards and pollution. The Guests of Honour, Prof. Samunder Singh, President, International Weed Science Society and Dr. Sushil Kumar, President, Indian Society of Weed Science emphasized the need of such trainings while whole the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic. The Course Director of the training, Prof. Raihana Habib Kanth introduced and briefed the purpose of the training to the participants. Prof. Nazir Ahmad Ganai, Director Planning and Principal Investigator of IDP NAHEP, SKUAST-K also addressed and thanked all the participants and elaborated upon the activities undertaken by NAHEP, SKUAST-K. He praised the activities taken up by the FoA under NAHEP, ranging from career counselling of students to capacity building of scientists. Prof. Abdul Hameed Hakeem, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture appraised the trainees with importance of integrated weed management. A total of 20 lectures covering advances in weed science and research, current trends in global weed management, herbicide weed resistance and crops, efficient and precise application of new herbicide including encapsulated and nano-formulations, non-chemical and integrated approaches of weed management in crops were delivered by the experts from across the country and USA. Prof. A. N. Rao, Dr. N. T. Yaduraju, Prof. A. R. Sharma, Dr. Zahoor Ah Ganie, Prof. C. R. Chinnamuthu, Dr. Anil Dixit and Prof. Anil Kumar delivered lectures in this training programme. There was an active interaction between experts and participants at the end of each lecture. Everyday online quizes based on the day-lectures were also conducted to assess the knowledge gained by the trainees. The programme was concluded on 12th of August 2020 with the address of the Chief Guest of valedictory function Dr. Rajbir Singh, Director, ICAR-ATARI Zone I, Ludhiana, who informed the house about the need and popularization of weed management in DSR. He released e-certificates and compendium of the training. Dr. N.T. Yaduraju, former Director of ICAR-DWSR, Jabalpur was the Guest of Honour in the valedictory function. Prof. Mohammad Anwar Bhat, HOD (Agronomy) and Co-course director of the training course proposed Vote of Thanks to the experts, trainees and coordinators Dr. Parmeet Singh, Dr. Lal Singh, Dr. A. A. Saad and especially to the student facilitators Mohammad Salim Mir and Rafiq Ahmad Mengnoo for organizing the training successfully.