About Institute

Background

Considering the problem of weeds in crop fields and need for weed research in India, a Coordinated Weed Control Scheme on Wheat, Rice and Sugarcane was initiated as early as 1952 in 11 States of the country by the ICAR to monitor the weed flora and also to find out the relative feasibility of economical weed control. Later, a number of Crop Research Institutes of ICAR and State Agricultural Universities were involved in weed control research. Different   State Agricultural Universities also initiated the syllabus for weed management at under graduate and post-graduate level to teach and train students and researchers in weeds and their management.

It was in 1978 the Weed Research Programme was strengthened through All India Coordinated Research Programme on Weed Control by the ICAR in collaboration with the United States Deptt. of Agriculture. Initially, six centres were started at different state agricultural universities (SAU) for a period of six years. Later seven more centres in II phase and nine more centres in III phase were added during 1982-83 and 1985-86 respectively for a period of five years each. The programme was continued with plan funds of ICAR. This project assisted farming community through the scientific technologies developed, which are effectively utilized for alleviating the yield losses due to weeds in field crops.  The research programme tackled problems of weed management for which facilities were not available at different centres.   In VII Plan, it was decided to establish a National Research Centre for basic as well as applied research in Weed Science in India.  Accordingly, the National Research Centre for Weed Science (NRCWS) was approved during the middle   of VII Five Year Plan with a total outlay of Rs.  64 lakhs. Approval of Govt. of India for establishing NRCWS was conveyed vide DARE letter no. 13-13/85/AFC, dtd.  November 14,1986. The Centre actually came into existence on 22.04.1989 as National Research Centre for Weed Science (NRCWS) with the following mandate. NRCWS was further upgraded by the Council as Directorate of Weed Science Research (DWSR) vide its letter no. 14-3/2007-IA.II dated 23.01.2009.

Mandate

• To undertake basic and strategic research for developing  strategies for efficient weed  management in different agro-ecological zones.

• To provide leadership role and coordinate the network research with state agricultural universities for generating location specific technologies for weed management in different crops, cropping and farming system.

• To act as repository of information in weed science.

• To act as a centre for training in research methodologies in area of weed science and management.

• To collaborate with National and International agencies in achieving the above objectives.

• To provide consultancy.