June 4, 2004

Chinese Wheat Saved In Fight Against Stripe Rust

More than 3 billion kilograms of wheat have been saved in China, thanks to active control and treatment of stripe rust, a hazardous wheat disease, according to an expert from the All-China Agricultural Technology Spreading Center.

Over 95 percent of the four million hectares of wheat plagued by stripe rust were brought under control at the disease's incipient stage and the yield losses were also kept within a range of 5 percent, said Zhu Enlin, director of the center.

"It means a reduction of over 50 kg per 0.067 hectare, which is still light as stripe rust can cause 15 to 30 percent of yield loss or even no harvest in large-scale prevalence," Zhu said.

Detailed calculation would not be available until all the wheat is harvested.

Stripe rust first broke out in southwest China's Sichuan province last November and central China's Henan province last December, even earlier than in 1950, 1964 and 1990 when China also suffered large-scale prevalence of the disease.

Zhu listed weak disease-resistance of wheat seedlings and the warm winter influence as major factors leading to the disease, which quickly spread from no more than 50 counties at the beginning of this year to over 300 counties all over China in April.

He attributed the success in disease control to early finding and early treatment.

To ensure a summer harvest, the Ministry of Agriculture had released an urgent notice at the end of March, asking farmers and local government to spare no effort to prevent and treat the disease.

Currently, the prevention and treatment work has basically ended in China, especially in part of the wheat production areas in northwest China.