Port Blair, Aug 24: The ICAR-CIARI here conducted a three day Parthenium awareness programme at Harminder Bay (Little Andaman) recently. Mr Fred Levi, Captain and Mr Festus, Secretary along with 45 tribal farmers including women of Harminder Bay participated in this programme. Dr. B. Gangaiah, Head and Dr. T. Subramani, Scientist (Agronomy) of Natural Resource Management Division and Dr. V. Damodaran, Asst. Chief Technical Officer have organized the programme under the guidance of Dr. S. Dam Roy, Director, ICAR-CIARI.
The growing menace of Parthenium in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in general and Little Andaman in particular was highlighted during the programme. In this awareness programme information about various aspects like occurrence of Parthenium in different places of Little Andaman and its impact on yield and quality of crops, human beings, animals / livestocks was explained. The villagers were also made aware of the human health problems (allergy, skin lesions, Asthma) associated with the presence of its pollen in the air and when one comes in contact with weed plants. Enlisting various management options of this obnoxious weed, uprooting along with roots before flowering is most effective and permanent solution. Utilization of above ground biomass (prior to flowering) for compost making and its extracts as pesticide were also elaborated to the participants.
The role of Cassia sericea and Cassia tora legume plants that are present in the village in Parthenium suppression through suppressive and allelopatheic chemicals was brought to their knowledge. Farmers were asked to sow the Cassia seeds in Parthenium infected areas. A community based uprooting campaign of Parthenium weed in the village was organized in which tribal farmers, villagers and students have actively participated. The villagers were also informed of its biological control through Zygogramma bicolorata and the village Captain urged the scientists to explore this option in their viallge. At the awareness programme, various vegetable crop seeds were distributed among the tribal farmers for increasing their income in addition to diversifying their food basket.
