Parthenium Awareness Programme held on 20th August 2019 at College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar

Parthenium is a noxious and number one dangerous terrestrial weed because of its harmful effects both to humans and to biodiversity. It is an aggressive colonizer of wasteland, road sides, railway sides, water courses, cultivated fields, and overgrazed pastures. Parthenium plant contains chemicals, like parthenin, hysterin, hymenin, and ambrosin, and due to the presence of these chemicals, the weed exerts strong allelopathic effects on different crops. Parthenin has been reported as a germination and radical growth inhibitor in a variety of dicot and monocot plants. Parthenium weed is toxic to animals causing dermatitis with pronounced skin lesions on various animals including horses and cattles. If eaten, it is responsible for mouth ulcers with excessive salivation. The pollen grains, airborne dried plant parts, and roots of parthenium cause various allergies like contact dermatitis, hay fever, asthma, and bronchitis in human beings. About its menace and environmental consequences, Directorate of Weed Research Jabalpur every year launches Parthenium awareness week to educate farmers on its ill effects on biodiversity, human and animal health. This year the week was celebrated from 16-22 August and the school children, farmers, NSS volunteers and NCC cadets were made aware.

In view of the above, an awareness programme was conducted at College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar on 20th August, 2019 by the Department of Agronomy in association with the NSS Unit, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar. The programme was headed by the Head of the Department, Dr. P. Laxminarayana and NSS Programme Officer, Dr. B. Padmaja, Dr. Ameer Pasha and Dr. K. Pavan Chandra Reddy under the guidance of the Associate Dean, Dr. Seema. Dr. M. Madhavi, Principal Scientist (Agronomy) and Head, AICRP on Weed Management attended as the special guest and explained the nature of the weed, its effects on crop production, human and cattle health. The students were impressed that the weed should be eradicated and all the efforts should be devoted for the eradication. Dr. A. Manohar Rao, Professor and Head, Department of Horticulture and member of Board of Management, PJTSAU also participated in the programme and emphasized that the campus should be made Parthenium free. The third year and second year students of BSc (Ag) (NSS volunteers) took an oath that they would continue to create awareness on the ill effects and strive for the eradication of the weed. They exhibited the placards and took a rally on the occasion and uprooted all the parthenium plants in the student farm.