February 14, 2012

Indian wheat faces yellow-rust threat

Wheat crops in northern parts of India may face renewed threat from yellow rust in the coming days due to weather changes, according to an official source on Monday (Feb 13).

However, authorities are hopeful of limiting the damage and India may still post a record wheat output that may "even touch 90 million tonnes" in the crop year that began July 1, said Indu Sharma, director of the Directorate of Wheat Research.

The farm ministry estimates wheat output to rise about 1.7% to 88.31 million tonnes this crop year. A bumper output of the staple grain is the key to the government's plan to rollout a food-security programme, help contain food inflation and continue food-grain exports.

Reports of yellow rust, or stripe rust, attacks have recently raised concerns, though the ministry has said it was so far limited to some small pockets in the northern region's Jammu and Punjab. Also, the disease that is characterised by yellow-coloured stripes on the leaf blade has mostly manifested below the two upper leaves, which are vital for plant growth.

Sharma said the disease was confined to a "negligible area." But, "in the next 10 days, stripe rust will spread to more areas because of the wind."

Yellow rust usually spreads faster in moist and cool weather conditions. Rainy weather in February last year had caused the disease to spread widely, eventually clipping 3-4 million tonnes from the final output.

"Now onwards, the temperature is very congenial for stripe rust disease," Sharma said. "Now only awareness campaign will work," so that farmers take steps like spraying fungicide to limit the attack below the second leaf.

Still, Sharma said the weather this year is far better than last year and that she is hoping for sunny weather from mid-March, which will contain the disease. "The next 10-15 days are very crucial," she added.