Biocontrolling congress grass

Rohini Rangarajan

Agents to control this dreaded weed work well in labs, need to be
taken to fields

congress grass or parthenium, a native of tropical America, came to
India accidentally in 1955. A rapidly growing invasive species, this
grass competes well for nutrients and space and reproduces fast. One
of the world’s seven most notorious weeds, parthenium has already
taken over about five million hectares of this country’s land. Many
methods, ranging from manual uprooting, chemical herbicides to
biological control agents, have been proposed to limit the spread of
this uncontrollable variety of grass. Biocontrol agents are the most
preferred as they are inexpensive and cause few side-effects.

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