Scientists: 'Super' wheat to boost food security

Scientists say they're close to producing new "super varieties" of wheat that will resist a virulent fungus while boosting yields up to 15 percent, potentially easing a deadly threat to the world's food supply. The research is part of a global drive to protect wheat crops from the Ug99 strain of stem rust. It will be presented next week at a conference in St. Paul that's part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, based at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York organisers said Thursday.

Scientists will also report that Ug99 variants are becoming increasingly virulent and are being carried by the winds beyond Uganda and other East African countries where they were first identified in 1999. Once infected with the deadly fungus, wheat plants become covered in reddish-brown blisters. Read more ...

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

ASTA seeks funding for Germplasm Enhancement of maize

The American Seed Trade Association organised a congressional delegation March 17-18 in Washington, DC to inform US House of Representatives and US Senate Agricultural Appropriations subcommittee members about the importance of the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) program and to request additional funding.

GEM is a joint partnership between members of the seed industry and the US Department of Agriculture designed to increase the genetic diversity of corn germplasm and corn hybrids grown by US farmers. Read more ...

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

Untapped crop data from Africa predicts corn peril if temperatures rise

A hidden trove of historical crop yield data from Africa shows that corn long believed to tolerate hot temperatures is a likely victim of global warming. Stanford agricultural scientist David Lobell and researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) report in the inaugural issue of Nature Climate Change that a clear negative effect of warming on maize or corn production was evident in experimental crop trial data conducted in Africa by the organisation and its partners from 1999 to 2007.

Led by Lobell, the researchers combined data from 20,000 trials in sub-Saharan Africa with weather data recorded at stations scattered across the region. They found that a temperature rise of a single degree Celsius would cause yield losses for 65 percent of the present maize-growing region in Africa provided the crops received the optimal amount of rainfall. Under drought conditions, the entire maize-growing region would suffer yield losses, with more than 75 percent of areas predicted to decline by at least 20 percent for 1 degree Celsius of warming. Read more ...

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