TNAU vice-chancellor, others manually remove parthenium plants from campus farm

COIMBATORE: Along with webinars and online lectures on getting rid of invasive parthenium plants, planned over the course of this week, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University dedicated Tuesday for a practical session. Professors and higher officials of TNAU entered the farm on the campus and pulled out parthenium plants. All these were part of the university’s initiative to make the campus ‘parthenium free.’
TNAU vice-chancellor N Kumar and C R Chinnamuthu, head of the department of agronomy, were among those who manually removed parthenium plants on the campus.
As part of the ‘Parthenium Awareness Week’ programmes announced by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, from August 16 to August 22, TNAU will hold webinars, online lectures, and distributed awareness leaflets to farmers and members of the public.
According to a release, the VC has asked scientists and field workers to adopt periodical management strategies to remove parthenium from the campus and also the campuses affiliated to the university.
University spokesperson P Murali Arthanari said parthenium was an invasive species which entered the country in the 1950s through a wheat shipment, and because of its nature to produce 10,000 to 50,000 seeds, and their easy dispersal, the plant has now spread across the country’s length and breadth.
He said there were methods to eradicate the plant, such as pulling them out using hand, using brush cutters to cut them, using herbicides, releasing zygogramma (Mexican beetle) insects on the plants as a bio-control mechanism. “We are also working on producing a non-chemical solution using natural ingredients,” he said.