March 11, 2008

 

Wheat rust not an immediate threat to India's wheat

 

 

Wheat stem rust, which was recently found in Iran and has threatened to spread in other Asian countries, would not pose an immediate threat to India, the world's second largest grower, senior wheat crop scientists and genetic experts said Monday (March 10, 2008).

 

The agro-climatic conditions in northern and western India, which produce more than 80 percent of the country's wheat, would not allow the fungus to grow, they said.

 

"Moreover, the current wheat crop has passed the stage where it could be susceptible to such attacks," B. Mishra, a senior scientist from the Directorate of Wheat Research said.

 

However, the federal government is taking every step to prevent any attack by the fungus, which is all the more important as India is expected to harvest less wheat in the crop marketing year that starts April as than in the previous year.

 

"The possibility of Ug99 virus striking the wheat crop in India this year is very remote and it might take another couple of years before any impact of the virus can be seen in crops," Mishra added.

 

Last week, the Food and Agriculture Organization said the virulent wheat fungus previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has spread to Iran, and could be heading across Central and the Indian subcontinent.

 

FAO said the spores of the fungus which first emerged in Uganda in 1999, from which it derives its name Ug99 are carried mostly by wind over long distances and across continents.

 

Mishra said monitoring of wheat fields is over in around 80 percent of total cropped area and to date not a single outbreak has occurred anywhere in India.

 

"Indian scientists have developed wheat crop varieties which are resistant to the new strain of Ug99," a scientist from the Indian Council of Agriculture Research added.

 

India has planted wheat on more than 27 million hectares in the marketing year that starts April.

 

The country is officially forecast to produce around 74.81 million tonnes of wheat in 2008-09, down 1.0 million tonnes from a year earlier.