ARS, Karimnagar observed Awareness Programme cum Exhibition on Parthenium Eradication during Parthenium Awareness Week on 22nd August, 2023

Agricultural Research Station, Karimnagar of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University observed Awareness Programme cum Exhibition on Parthenium Eradication during Parthenium Awareness Week (16-22nd August) on 22nd August, 2023 at Agricultural Research Station, Karimnagar. Dr.G.Manjulatha, Principal Scientist and Head enlightened the farmers on the menace of Parthenium which is an aggressive colonizer of wastelands, cultivated lands, pastures, etc. and significance of Parthenium Week and educated them on the dreadful ill effects of Parthenium on agricultural crops, animals and humans causing respiratory and skin allergic problems besides deteriorating environment, loss of crop productivity and biodiversity exerting allelopathic effects on different crops. Later, Dr. Padmaja, Principal Scientist (Agronomy) on Weed Management has detailed the life history of Parthenium, various mechanisms to manage its widespread dispersal in open places and crop fields to the farmers and emphasized to take up eradication on a community basis viz., manual uprooting of Parthenium before flowering and seed setting, ploughing the weed before flowering, etc and also clarified several queries posed by the farmers. Representative of DAO, Karimnagar Smt. Anjani conveyed the gathering to educate others also in the move of eradication of Parthenium. The Project Director Smt. Priyadarshini sensitized the farmers, RAWEP students of DAATTC, Karimnagar, school children of Laurel School, Karimnagar to pull out all the Parthenium before flowering in their surroundings. DAATTC Coordinator, Dr.K.Madan Mohan Reddy informed the gathering that the RAWEP students have been actively poarticipating in the eradication of Parthenium during the entire Parthenium Awareness Week (18-22 August) in various villages and mandals of Karimnagar and Rajanna Sircilla Districts. The RAWEP students have displayed various exhibits of information related to life history, various control measures, ill effects of Parthenium, etc in coloured charts and also live samples of Parthenium plants, seeds, biocontrol agent Zygograma bicolorata and aided in the easy understanding means for the audience. Later, all the Parthenium plants were manually uprooted and eradicated in the surrounding fields and bunds. In this programme, Dr.A.Vijaya Bhaskar, Senior Scientist (Path.), Dr.G.Usharani, Scientist (Pl.Br.), Dr.D.Sravani, Scientist (Pl.Br.),Dr.M.Rajendra Prasad, Scientist (Crop Protection), 54 RAWEP Students, 80 students from Laurel School, 30 farmers from adopted village Nagulamallial of Kothapally of Karimnagar and several other villages of Karimngar,Village Sarpanch adopted village Nagulamallial of Kothapally of Karimnagar Sri. Nayani Prasad, Ward Member Kola Sampath, and have actively participated in the programme.