Delivering rust resistant wheat to farmers: a step towards increased food security

An important step towards reducing the vulnerability of wheat in Africa and Asia to the Ug99 race of the stem rust pathogen is the substitution of current susceptible varieties with superior resistant varieties. In the 2008–2009 cropping season both seed multiplication and dissemination of Ug99 resi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuphytica Vol. 179; no. 1; pp. 187 - 196
Main Authors Joshi, A. K., Azab, M., Mosaad, M., Moselhy, M., Osmanzai, M., Gelalcha, S., Bedada, G., Bhatta, M. R., Hakim, A., Malaker, P. K., Haque, M. E., Tiwari, T. P., Majid, A., Jalal Kamali, M. R., Bishaw, Z., Singh, R. P., Payne, T., Braun, H. J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.05.2011
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biotechnology
Crop diseases
Crop science
Farmers
Food supply
International economic relations
Life Sciences
Pathogens
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Plant Pathology
Plant Physiology
Plant resistance
Plant Sciences
Seed industry
Wheat
Wheat industry
Seed distribution systems
Farmer participation
Ug99
Stem rust
f. sp
Participatory varietal selection
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Summary:An important step towards reducing the vulnerability of wheat in Africa and Asia to the Ug99 race of the stem rust pathogen is the substitution of current susceptible varieties with superior resistant varieties. In the 2008–2009 cropping season both seed multiplication and dissemination of Ug99 resistant varieties were initiated in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Ug99 resistant varieties must occupy about 5% of the area sown to wheat in each country to ensure sufficient seed to displace current popular varieties. Because of the underdeveloped seed industry and small farm sizes in most of these countries, various strategies are being applied for rapid multiplication and dissemination of resistant varieties. Approaches being used include pre-release seed multiplication while candidate resistant lines are being tested in national evaluation trials and farmer participatory selection. Resistant varieties are already released in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt and Pakistan and more varieties are expected to be released in 2010 in these and other countries. Our results show that some new Ug99 resistant lines have yield superiority over dominant local varieties. Activities and progress in seed multiplication using existing and new Ug99 resistant varieties are discussed.
ISSN:0014-2336
1573-5060
DOI:10.1007/s10681-010-0314-9