UN warns against dangerous wheat fungus

UNITED NATIONS—The UN’s agriculture agency has asked Pakistan and other major wheat- producing countries east of Iran to be on “high alert” following the detection in Iran of a dangerous new fungus that could destroy entire wheat fields.
The wheat stem rust, whose spores are carried by wind across continents, was previously found in East Africa and Yemen and has moved to Iran, which said that laboratory tests have confirmed its presence in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in the country’s west, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is based in Rome.
Up to 80 per cent of all Asian and African wheat varieties are susceptible to the fungus, and major wheat-producing nations to Iran’s east, such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan should be on high alert, FAO warned.
“The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk,” id Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, said in Rome, according to a press statement issued at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
He urged the control of the rust’s spread to lower the risk to countries already impacted by high food prices. Iran has said that it will bolster its research capacity to tackle the new fungus and develop wheat varieties that are rust-resistant.
Called Ug99, the disease first surfaced in Uganda and subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia, with both countries experiencing serious crop yield losses due to a serious rust epidemic last year. Also in 2007, FAO confirmed that a more virulent strain was found in Yemen.
The agency appealed to countries to bolster disease surveillance and step up efforts to control it.
The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) - founded by Norman Borlaug, Cornell University, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Internatioanl Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and FAO - will continue its work in assisting countries develop drug-resistant wheat varieties, upgrading their plant protection measures and creating contingency plans.