Agriculture: Growing threat of wheat rust epidemics worldwide

Researchers meeting at a scientific conference in Aleppo this week reported that aggressive new strains of wheat rust diseases called stem rust and stripe rust have decimated up to 40 percent of farmers' wheat fields in recent harvests. Areas affected are North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucuses, including Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

"These epidemics increase the price of food and pose a real threat to rural livelihoods and regional food security," said Mahmoud Solh, Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine and International Milling Directory from Perendale Publishers