ICARDA News

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DRY AREAS

P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria

Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012

Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105; E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG

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2 August, 1999

Breakthrough in breeding for Hessian fly resistance in Morocco

Cereal growers in North Africa are safeguarding food supplies and the environment while retrieving lost yield worth millions of dollars from the ravages of a tiny fly.

In the dry areas of Morocco alone, sowing bread wheat varieties resistant to attack from the Hessian fly is worth US$20 million annually in restored yields. Moroccan bread wheat averages 36% crop loss to the pest, slightly less in durum wheat, but the fly can produce three generations a year making attack likely.

Such losses are serious for a country already importing grain to feed an expanding population. Nor is the Hessian fly confined to Morocco, but its damage extends to some neighboring western Mediterranean countries such as Algeria, Tunisia, Spain and Portugal. This insect is also an important pest in the USA.

Farmers cannot justify using environmentally questionable and expensive insecticides. Instead, Morocco’s National Agricultural Research Institute (INRA), Kansas State University from the USA and CIMMYT/ICARDA wheat program pooled resources to develop varieties of both bread wheat and durum wheat with resistance. Left unchecked, the tiny fly (3mm) lays its eggs on wheat leaves. Its larvae feed on nutrients, which would normally plump up the ear of grain. At worst, wheat plants are so weakened they fall over and die, giving complete crop failure.

Screening wheat germplasm from Morocco, the USA and the joint CIMMYT/ICARDA wheat program has been carried out in fly ‘hot spots’ and in the greenhouse in Morocco. Crosses of identified sources of resistance with adapted Moroccan cultivars were carried out at ICARDA’s Tel Hadya station in Syria and in Morocco. Potential varieties were given their final tests in Morocco.

These joint multidisciplinary efforts have just started yielding their fruits. Three lines of durum wheat containing the H5 resistance gene from US germplasm are now in the release pipeline. Three bread wheat varieties, Massira, Arrihane, and Aguilal have already been released. Several other durum and bread wheat lines are in the pipeline, including some developed using the doubled-haploid technique. Rough estimates suggest that if all of Morocco’s wheat was produced using new, resistant varieties, the extra grain would be worth US$336 million per year.

Morocco’s poorest farmers will soon enjoy the benefits of growing wheat resistant to Hessian fly. The resistant germplasm generated and the expertise developed in this area will benefit other countries in the region. These efforts are continuing to widen the genetic base for resistance to Hessian fly to cope with virulent biotypes in the future.

For further information on Hessian fly, please contact: CIMMYT/ICARDA wheat program at ICARDA.

E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG

About ICARDA: Established in 1977, ICARDA serves the entire developing world for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean; and dry-area developing countries for the on-farm management of water, improvement of nutrition and productivity of small ruminants (sheep and goats), and rehabilitation and management of rangelands. In the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, ICARDA is responsible for the improvement of durum and bread wheats, chickpea, pasture and forage legumes and farming systems; and for the protection and enhancement of the natural resource base of water, land, and biodiversity.