Parthenium weed eradication

Staff Reporter DIMAPUR:
Article published on 7/12/2009 12:31:42 AM IST


Department of Agriculture, Dimapur district organized an eradication campaign of
parthenium, a poisonous weed, along NH-39 from Purana Bazar till Piphema on
Saturday with District Agriculture Officer (DAO) N Wetsah, Dimapur and his
colleagues supervising the programme.
Meanwhile Assistant Plant Pathologist, Dimapur, Bendanglila, informed that the
species Parthenium hysterophorus, also known as congress weeds or congress
grass, has become a common weed in Taiwan, Australia and parts of Africa. She
informed that in some areas, outbreaks have been of almost epidemic proportions,
impacting crop production, livestock and human health. It was imported into
India along with the PL 480 Mexican wheat seeds in the 1950s, she said. The weed
has since grown into uncontrollable proportions invading million of hectares of
uncultivated wastelands, roadsides, railway tracks, etc.
It may be mentioned that scientists had describe it as a “poisonous, allergic
and aggressive weed posing a serious threat to human beings and livestock.”
The presence of parthenium in cropped lands resulted in yield reduction up to 40
per cent. It is also responsible for bitter milk disease in livestock fed on
grass mixed with parthenium. Contact with this plant causes dermatitis and
respiratory malfunction in humans, dermatitis in cattle and domestic animals,
due to the presence of toxin Parthenin. After much research, Mexican beetles
(zygogramma bicolorata) were considered a “safe” bio-control agent with both
the adults and larvae capable of feeding on the parthenium leaves thus checking
the plant growth and flower production.

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