Pakistan among countries face neglected threat of wheat rust diseases

FAO is calling for countries in the global ‘wheat belt’ to step up monitoring and prevention for wheat rusts – fungal diseases that do especially well in particularly wet seasons.

Yields could be affected across North Africa, the Middle East into West and South Asia, which account for more than 30 percent of global wheat output and nearly 40 percent of total land area dedicated to wheat planting.

“The favourable growing conditions for wheat are also good for the rust diseases that affect wheat, so when there is good precipitation for wheat, that is also when wheat rusts will be able to best thrive and proliferate,” says Fazil Dusunceli, Agriculture Officer in FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, a specialist in wheat rusts.

“The ideal approach to prevent the rusts is to grow the right cultivars which are resistant to rust diseases. This minimizes the disease risks. In case of sudden epidemics, fungicide sprays can help to mitigate the effects of the disease, but only if they are caught at an early stage,” Dusunceli adds.

Wheat rusts manifest themselves as yellow, blackish or brown colored blisters that form on wheat leaves and stems, full of millions of spores. These spores, similar in appearance to rust, infect the plant tissues, hindering photosynthesis and decreasing the crop’s ability to produce grain.

Dusunceli underlines that monitoring and surveillance should be stepped up for rusts especially in East Africa in Ethiopia and Kenya, where the growing season is underway and rains have been favourable. If wheat rusts strike on susceptible varieties at an early stage, he said, almost the entire crop can be lost.

“Although in lowlands in warmer areas the crop has fully matured or has been harvested, in highland areas and more mountainous regions, including Central and West Asia, there is still a risk of outbreaks, but there is still time to reduce the losses from yellow rust especially,” Dusunceli notes, since the crops at higher altitudes and lower temperatures are still maturing.

According to the report, especially yellow (stripe) rust has been damaging on susceptible varieties in some parts of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. A widespread epidemic similar to one in 2010 has nevertheless not occurred, thanks partly to the progressive introduction of resistant cultivars, chemical control and warming weather conditions.

However, in some locations disease severities increased to high levels requiring fungicide applications.

In Pakistan, there was a marked increase in reports of high (above 40 percent) and moderate (above 20 percent) severity for all three types of rust diseases, but the effects of yellow rust were most pronounced, appearing in 53% of the surveyed fields.

In Afghanistan, yellow rust appeared in the East, North and Northeast zones at the end of March. Incidence and severity increased on susceptible crops until the last week of April, but warmer weather is expected to curtail further disease spread.

Using resistant cultivars and early intervention are the key principles of controlling wheat rust diseases, but monitoring for rusts on the ground is typically weak and likewise the reporting times are slow in many countries.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Jun 14 2013. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.