Climate change is expected to increase the spread and severity of rust diseases, further threatening food security. To combat stripe rust, greater investments in research and regional coordination are essential. (more…)
Driven by the shift toward higher temperatures and increasingly variable and intense rainfall for short durations, wheat stripe rust is flourishing in new areas of the world. Aggressive new strains have decimated wheat crops, notably in 2010 when an epidemic destroyed some 400,000 hectares in Ethiopia and caused losses of up to 80 percent in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
The science and strategies needed to contain the threat of posed by wheat stripe rust are well known to the agricultural research community. In the area of crops science, for instance, pathogenic variability, a narrow genetic base resistance, and host preference change are all necessary.
Wheat stripe rust poses a significant threat to global wheat production: new aggressive rust races are spreading and they are present in most of the world’s wheat-growing areas. They are also emerging in new areas as a result of climate change, and appear earlier in the growing season.