Researchers are intensifying efforts to stop a fungus from consuming over 80 per cent of the global wheat produce in the face of biting shortages and soaring prices in the international market.
Under the Global Rust Initiative (GRI) scientists are seeking new ways to eradicate the new wheat stem rust strain Ug99, so called because it was discovered in Uganda in 1999. The fungal disease also threatens barley and has crossed the Red Sea towards Yemen. If not checked, it will be soon afflicting wheat fields in Egypt, the Middle East and Asia.
Under GRI, governments and other research institutions in Kenya, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, South Africa, Uganda , Sudan, Turkey and Yemen are joining in the efforts to address the current crisis. The GRI is also training scientists around the world to recognize stem rust and understand ways to prevent it and strategies for breeding resistant wheat.
“We want to enhance the knowledge of contemporary genetic techniques in Ethiopia and Kenya. Our plan is to support efforts in these countries to breed varieties that will resist Ug99 and other rusts,” said the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant pathologist Yue Jin.
ARS is the American equivalent of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and is based in Minnesota. ARS is screening wheat varieties grown in the US for resistance the new strain of stem rust in East Africa.
Prof Jin confirmed that a new variant of Ug99 that has been found in Kenya has shown more resistance to existing genetic treatment, putting more wheat fields in danger. “It could broaden the disease’s reach to beyond the 80 per cent of the world’s wheat that is at risk,” said lead researcher RickWard of the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)
Previous field studies in Kenya and Ethiopia showed that ug99 has overcome most of the known stem rust resistance genes deployed in wheat cultivars over the years.
Kenya’s total wheat grain requirement for milling into flour stands at 900,000 tonnes per year, while Kenya’s farmers’ produce some 300,000 tonnes per year, with the remaining 600,000 tonnes of the country’s requirements imported.
The world’s largest exporters in million tonnes are the United States (24.73), Canada’s 19.66 per cent, European Union (13.5) per cent, Argentina (10.5 per cent) and Australia’s 9 per cent.
Current wheat shortage due to bad weather and reduced acreage has pushed wheat prices to a 30 year high. Droughts in the four leading producers Ukraine, Europe, Canada and Australia, have drastically reduced production while flooding in the US have undermined harvest quality.
Stem rust is the worst of three fungal rust diseases that infect wheat. It infests straws so that nutrients cannot reach the grains. Powdery, reddish-orange spores form on infected plants.
Business Day Africa
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