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.
Efforts to defeat wheat stripe rust in the years to come will depend on regional and international cooperation – information exchange and the mutual sharing of risk analyses that are able to track a rapidly spreading disease like stripe rust. (more…)
When a major stripe rust epidemic struck Ethiopia in 2010 the country was highly susceptible to major crop losses: Ethiopian farmers had limited access to resistant seed and the country’s ability to respond to demand in the immediate aftermath of an outbreak was constrained by a poorly functioning infrastructure. (more…)
Ethiopia has long had to contend with wheat stripe rust epidemics. Most recently, in 2010, the disease caused significant crop losses, affecting an estimated 400,000 hectares. The epidemic covered almost all wheat-growing regions in the country except Tigray Province. Most of the commercial bread wheat cultivars were susceptible.
In an urgent response to the endemic threat that the wheat stripe rust disease now poses to global wheat production, ICARDA and a partnership of leading international agricultural research institutions and policy makers from affected countries are initiating joint efforts to review the most recent crop science innovations and support countries to combat future rust epidemics. (more…)
Crop science – the development and use of resistant cultivars – is widely considered the most economically-feasible and environmentally-appropriate means of combating rust diseases. (more…)
The example of Iran shows how rust surveillance and early warning can provide rapid action to slow the spread of rust and prepare a stock of new resistant varieties for future growing seasons. (more…)
A significant investment has been made over the past five years in surveillance and control of stem rust. This disease is critical, appearing at the end of the growing cycle and capable of decimating an entire harvest in weeks. (more…)