Deadly wheat disease 'a threat to world food security'

A virulent wheat disease now on the move from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula could devastate world wheat crops and threaten food security, warn scientists.

Known as Ug99, this new form of stem rust has spread from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda over the Red Sea to Yemen. Most wheat crops are susceptible to stem rust.

The Global Rust Initiative (GRI) — a partnership of international agricultural research centres — and the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture confirmed infected crops in Yemen, with evidence of further infections in Sudan.

The Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) predicts that windborne spores could easily spread to India, Pakistan, the Middle East and North Africa, which together grow about 25 per cent of the world's wheat. The annual losses could total some US$3 billion.

M. E. Tusneem, chairman of Pakistan's Agriculture Research Council, warned that the disease would have a "major impact" on food security if not controlled. Global wheat stocks were, he noted, at a historic low.

In a CIMMYT press release, US wheat scientist and Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug is quoted saying, "We know what to do and how to do it. All we need are the financial resources, scientific cooperation and political will."

from SciDevNet