Weed management perspectives for India in the changing agriculture scenario in the country

India is the fourth largest economy in the world. Agriculture continues to be the most important sector of Indian economy providing employment and livelihood to nearly 70% of the total population. It has done well all through to feed the growing population. About 2.5 mt of additional food grains are required annually in the next 10 years to meet the demand of the growing population. This is a huge challenge as it has to come from shrinking (both in quality and quantity) land and water resources, adverse climatic and market forces, poor infrastructure, etc. The government is putting lot of thrust on agriculture in its 11th five year plan (2007-12), recognizing that agriculture growth is key to achieve the target of 9.0% growth in total GDP. The government is responding to these challenges by increasing the investment, launching several developmental schemes and providing policy support. Many of the schemes are pro-poor and pro-small holders aimed at achieving inclusive growth. One such scheme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme which guarantees employment/wages to one adult in a household for 100 days in a year, has benefited millions of rural workforce. However, this has also made the labor expensive and unavailable for agricultural operations including weeding. The paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of weed management in the light of changing agricultural scenario in the country

Implications of Weeds and Weed Management on Food Security and Safety In The Asia-Pacific Region

The food price crisis of 2007 and 2008 caused widespread food shortages and food and nutrition insecurity the world over. Home to the largest number of poor and undernourished people in the world, the Asia and Pacific region (APR) was at the epicenter of the crisis and was hit extremely hard. Although food prices have eased since then, recent studies indicate that food prices will remain high and volatile in the future. Reducing the existing large crops yield gaps is one of the appropriate approaches to meet the growing regional food security demands. Crop yield gap reduction is possible by optimizing crop productivity through identification and alleviation of major impediments such as weeds, which are more adapted to wide range of environments. Weeds continue to cause yield losses ranging from 10 to 60% depending on the crop and associated environment. Appropriate weed management has the potential to ensure food security by enhancing productivity and increasing profitability of farmers by cutting costs. Judicious selection, integration and proper application of herbicides will guarantee consumers the safety of foods they consume. However, impact of globalization, climate change, genetically modified crops and other recent trends, also have an impact on weeds and weed management. Severe labour scarcity, shortage of water for agriculture, emphasis on organic and conservation agriculture, are redefining the way we address weed problem. The solutions adopted by the developed countries may not suit the vast majority of the countries in the APR. It is time to evolve APR’s own strategies and approaches. Besides these technological challenges, APR countries have to grapple with the problems of different sort such as the ignorance of vast majority of farmers about the weed problem, the inadequate capacity of the extension personnel and the insensitive administrators and policy makers. The weed scientists in APR countries have a daunting job at their hands to deal with this multitude of problems. Optimal weed management solutions, to meet the food security and safety needs, could be evolved from networking and collaboration with weed scientists from the developed countries in the region as well as from the other parts of the world

Management of weeds in food legumes

Weeds are one of the major constraints in sustainable production of all crops including food legumes. The food legumes are mostly grown under rafufedJdry land conditions and hence do not receive the best management practices that are required for maximization of crop productivity. Crops, particularly grown during rainy season or under irrigated conditions are more heavily infested with weeds and hence experience heavy losses in crop yields if weed management is not adequately done. The crops are infested with such diverse weed flora that integration of diffdrent methods of weed management is needed for realizing the I full potential of the crop. The major weeds associated with food legumes are Trianthema portulacastrum and Echinochloa colona during rainy season, Pluchea lanceolata, Convolvulus arvensis, Carthamus oxycantha, Vida sativa and Asphodelus tenuifolius (in dry lands), Cichorium intybus, Medicago hispida, Chenopodium album, Phalaris minor and Avena ludoviciana (in irrigated lands) during winter season. Parasitic weed Cuscuta spp. is a serious problem in lentil, greengram and blackgram especially in rice-fallows. Broornrape (Orobanche spp.) is a great menace in several food legumes and is particularly very serious in faba bean and lentil in the Mediterranean region. Cultural, mechanical and manual methods are the principal methods used in the management of weeds in food legumes in many regions. However, perennial weeds viz., Cyperus rotundus, Sorghum halepense and Cynodon dactylon are not controlled due to their re-emergence. The effectiveness of manual or mechanical methods of weed removal could be enhanced by their timel

Density-effect and economic threshold of purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus) in soybean

Purple nutsedge (~nutsedge) is an important perennial weed, which infests soybean in India and causes high yield losses. Selective pre-emergence herbicides hardly control nutsedge. Post-emergent application of imazethapyr is effective against nutsedge with almost 70 % efficiency. Information on the interference effect of nutsedge across densities on soybean and its economic threshold (ET) is hardly available, but would be useful for its management, and saving herbicide treatments with lower densities. An experiment was designed to evaluate the interference of nutsedge in pure stands, and that of natural weed infestations on soybean. Moreover, it was aimed to determine ET of nutsedge in soybean. The dry weights of weeds in the treatments ‘natural weeds including nutsedge’ and the one of nutsedges in the pure stand density of nutsedge 200 plants/m2 were similar and higher than weed biomass in other nutsedge densities. The ‘natural weed infestation both including and excluding nutsedge’ and the treatment of 200 nutsedge plants/m2 caused greater reductions in soybean yields and were the most competitive. The ET of nutsedge in soybean was 19–22 (~mean 21) plants/m2, considering 70 % efficiency of the herbicide imazethapyr. It predicts that a density of 21 nutsedge plants/m2 can cause 9.1–11.5 % yield losses, which are an economic loss under this situation. This ET would help in making decisions for nutsedge management and fitting models and could be used for other similar sites with nutsedge dominance. This ET, considering several production factors, is more precise and reliable than the ET determined with only yield losses

Risk Analysis - A Biosecurity Tool to Assess Weed Potential of a Plant

Seeds and planting materials of different plant species are being imported into India. Many of these have the potential to become agricultural or environmental weeds and this risk needs to be assessed before allowing their entry. Weed risk assessment method was judged on its ability to correctly reject weeds and accept non-weeds. Out of 170 plants tested, a total of 40% plants were classified as serious weeds, 30% as common weeds and remaining 30% were non weeds. The system is designed to be operated by plant quarantine officers. The weed risk assessment system with explicit scoring of biological, ecological and geographical attributes is a useful tool for detecting potentially invasive weeds in other areas of the world

Contemporary Information and Knowledge Management: Impact on Farming in India

Farming is an important part of Indian economy and it involves a wide range of stakeholders, of whom the small holder farmers are the largest group. Information sharing on new production processes with farmers was prominent in the ‘sixties which was key to the success of the Green Revolution. Agricultural extension, the process of enabling farmers and experts to exchange information with each other, has since been institutionalized to a high degree and is assessed to be not as effective as it had been a generation back. The advent of digital, technology-mediated information and knowledge management was thought to offer significant new opportunities for knowledge exchange in Indian farming as a whole. These hopes led to the launching of a number of initiatives in different parts of India, which has emerged as the host of the largest number of rural development projects where contemporary information and communication technology (ICT) play a pivotal role. While analyzing the outputs of such initiatives, many studies have pointed out that farming is not a priority concern of most of them. On the other hand, we can notice a non-complimentary strand of ICT in agriculture projects operated by a number of institutions with ICT resources playing a key role in some of them. These efforts, generally speaking, do not promote user participation in information flows quite unlike the contemporary trends

Seeding Success through Innovation & Technology: Role of Innovations in Transforming Indian Agriculture

Agriculture remains the most important sector for India, vital for ensuring its food and nutritional security. From an economic perspective, the sector provides livelihood means to over 58 percent of the nation’s population, while contributing 14 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by providing bulk of the wage goods required by non-agriculture sectors, and most of the raw materials for the industries. The Green Revolution and the transformation it brought about to this sector helped in easing poverty, and proved that agricultural development has a direct role in improving the livelihood of the people and the society. However, despite its importance, various indicators from the sector show that all is not well. Across the world, the challenges facing the sector are immense: declining natural resources, smaller landholdings and lesser area for cultivation, erratic monsoons, climate change crisis, energy crisis, loss of biodiversity, weak extension machinery, rising input costs, inadequate storage infrastructure, high post-harvest losses, and lack of access to markets. There is also an urgent need to promote the competitiveness of this sector and gearing up our agricultural systems including technological aspects so as to meet the pressures of consumer demand and international markets

Second Green Revolution: Growth Engine for Transformation. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India

The Indian agricultural sector needs to be revitalised to meet the demand of food and nutritional security of a growing population amidst challenging situations. While the first Green Revolution helped in meeting the production demands in the 1960s, the next revolution needs to focus on holistic development of the sector and sustainable in the long run. The next revolution has to help the small and marginal farmers in sustaining their livelihood. It will need to provide end-to-end services to the farmer, linking him to the market and facilitating access to better technology and other resources. The dairy revolution in the country is a prime example of such an approach. An inclusive market oriented approach can revolutionise the agricultural sector and attract the youth to take up to agriculture as another business venture. An agribusiness development path involving greater productivity growth throughout the entire agribusiness value chain provides for a solid foundation for rapid, inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction. Improving the skill levels of the farmers can help in diversifying and minimising the risk from the sector. This will also foster an ecosystem for innovations from within the community

Weed Science For Sustainable Agriculture, Environment and Biodiversity, Volume 1

The Asia Pacific Region (APR) holds 40 percent of the world's agricultural land and 25 percent of its population. APR generates about one-third of the world's GDP and is the world's biggest producer of cereals, vegetables, fruit, meat and fish, with strong growth in all areas..

Weeds in Indian Agriculture: Problems and prospects to become self sufficient

Weeds are one of the major biological constraints that compete with crops for natural resources as well as added inputs and are limiting production and productivity in arable crops, fruits, vegetables, grass lands, forestry and aquatic environment. Despite continuous research and extension efforts made in of weed science, weeds continue to cause considerable losses to farming in India. As per the available estimates, weeds cause up to one-third of the total losses in yield, besides impairing produce quality, nutrient depletion, serving as alternate hosts to insect pests and diseases, loss of biodiversity and various kinds of health and environmental hazards. The dynamic nature of weeds necessitates the continuous monitoring and refining weed management strategies foe alleviating adverse effects of weeds in India. This paper presents a summary of information on weeds and weed management in India with a brief account on future strategies in the context of changing climate