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Kenyans help world fight wheat pest
Researcher Peter Njau at work at a Kari farm in Njoro, Kenya. Studies show that Kingbird, a new variety of wheat, ‘can do well in areas where Ug99 disease has spread.’
Posted Monday, May 18 2009 at 00:00
There are many examples in the last century of stem rust mutating and devastating wheat plants with single resistance genes. In Kenya, Ug99 has mutated and overcome two additional resistance genes — Sr24 and Sr36.
Averting a crisis will require farmers to replace their existing varieties with resistant ones, many of which produce higher yields.
An update from the Global Cereal Rust Monitoring System shows that the mutated fungus could be headed to South Asia, where many subsistence farmers produce 19 per cent of the world’s wheat for a population of 1.4 billion people. Ug99 can cut wheat yields by 20 to 80 per cent.
The monitoring system has also implemented wind models showing that Ug99, which has moved out of East Africa to the Middle East, could soon travel to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Wheat provides 20 per cent of the world’s food calories.
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