April 29, 2004
From: Xinhuanet [edited]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/22/content_1435499.htm
Emergency prevention against wheat disease urged
The Ministry of Agriculture
revealed on Thursday that 2 million hectares of wheat in China
have been plagued by stripe rust and the infected acreage might
reach 6.7 million hectares by the end of 2004. Minister Du
Qinglin urged local governments to strengthen the early-warning
system and to enhance efficiency in preventing and controlling
the disease, hoping to restrain the infected areas within 5 per
cent of the total wheat yield. The ministry set the wheat
production goal for the summer of 2004 at an average rise of 5
kilograms per mu (0.067 hectare) over the same period of 2003.
Du stressed that both governments and farmers should improve
defensive abilities against other disasters, such as drought,
plant lodging [the bending or falling over of a crop plant], and
hot wind. He also reminded farmers to focus on irrigation to
ensure a sufficient water supply for wheat, which was now at its
key growth period for the year.
[Wheat stripe rust (also known as yellow rust) is caused by
_Puccinia striiformis_. It occurs worldwide at higher altitudes
in wheat production zones of the southern and northern areas of
temperate regions. Yield losses can be considerable, ranging
from about 40 per cent to complete destruction of the crop.
Survival of the fungus is threatened by high temperature and dry
weather. It survives primarily in dormant mycelium and uredinia
on infected volunteer wheat. It also infects some barley
cultivars. Disease management involves the use of resistant
cultivars, control of seeding dates, elimination of volunteer
seedlings and use of chemical fungicides.
Useful references:
http://www.cdl.umn.edu/introduction/rusts.html
http://www.cimmyt.cgiar.org/Research/Wheat/map/developing_world/HistoryWBChina/pdf/HistWBChina_cap10.pdf
http://www.cimmyt.cgiar.org/Research/Wheat/map/developing_world/HistoryWBChina/pdf/HistWBChina_cap5.pdf
http://www.agriculture.com/worldwide/IDS/2004-04
I also included 2 references from CIMMYT that deal with the
disease in China. - Mod.DH]
