Agriculture is the major source of livelihood for nearly half of the Indian population. However, the productivity of crops is much lower than many countries and needs enhancement to produce ∼400 million tons of food grains for meeting food demands of a population of 1.7 billion by 2050. Diverse climatic conditions in India favor the most adopted weeds to prevail and cause severe crop yield losses. Weeds also degrade quality of the produce, raise cost of production; harbor and serve as alternate hosts to several insect pests and diseases. Parthenium hysterophorus L.; Phalaris minor Retz.; Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees.; Echinochloa spp.; weedy rice; Lantana camara L.; Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King & H. Rob.; Mikania micrantha Kunth., are a few of many major weeds of concern currently in India. Weed management in India is critical to improve crops productivity by minimizing weeds caused crop yield losses and to alleviate other adverse effects of weeds in different ecosystems. In spite of the progress made in evolving weed management technologies for different crops and other ecosystems, weeds continue to be a concern in varying ecosystems. The real challenges of Indian weed research are: managing weeds in small farms; non availability of labor and mechanical tools; inadequate information on weed biology and shifts in weed flora; herbicide resistant weeds; lack of understanding on the impact of climate change on weeds and weed control; popularizing integrated weed management with herbicides use by ensuring safe use to avoid adverse effect on human health, environment and avoid weeds developing herbicide resistance and prevention of entry and management of alien invasive weeds. The greatest opportunity of Indian weed science is the potentiality of appropriate weed management technologies to substantially improve the crops productivity. Thus, weed scientists have a greater role to play in the development, popularization and adoption of location specific effective, economical and eco-friendly weed management technologies for different ecosystems of India.

中文翻译：

---

印度的杂草研究问题、挑战和机遇

农业是近一半印度人口的主要生计来源。然而，作物的生产力远低于许多国家，需要提高生产约 4 亿吨粮食以满足到 2050 年 17 亿人口的粮食需求。造成严重的农作物减产。杂草还会降低产品质量，增加生产成本；作为多种害虫和疾病的替代宿主。Parthenium hysterophorus L.; 法拉里斯小雷兹。Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees.; 稗属; 杂草米；马缨丹 camara L.; Chromolaena odorata (L.) RM King & H. Rob.; Mikania micrantha Kunth. 是目前在印度引起关注的许多主要杂草中的几种。印度的杂草管理对于通过最大限度地减少杂草造成的作物产量损失和减轻杂草在不同生态系统中的其他不利影响来提高作物生产力至关重要。尽管在针对不同作物和其他生态系统发展杂草管理技术方面取得了进展，但杂草仍然是不同生态系统中的一个问题。印度杂草研究的真正挑战是：管理小农场的杂草；没有劳动力和机械工具；关于杂草生物学和杂草菌群变化的信息不足；抗除草剂杂草；对气候变化对杂草和杂草控制的影响缺乏了解；通过确保安全使用，避免对人类健康产生不利影响，推广综合杂草管理与除草剂的使用，环境，避免杂草产生除草剂抗性，防止外来入侵杂草进入和管理。印度杂草科学的最大机遇是适当的杂草管理技术可显着提高作物生产力的潜力。因此，杂草科学家在为印度不同生态系统开发、推广和采用特定地点的有效、经济和生态友好的杂草管理技术方面可以发挥更大的作用。