Washington, DC
April 13, 2007Source:
U.S.
National Association of
Wheat Growers (NAWG) - Week's News Digest
One of the many things the
National Association of
Wheat Growers (NAWG) follows in Washington is the status of
funding for priority USDA wheat research programs. There has
been a lot of confusion about which projects were funded and
which were not in the continuing resolution that served as a
substitute for the FY2007 funding bills left undone at the end
of the 109th Congress. The following information was provided by
Dr. Kay Simmons, national program leader for plant genetics and
grain crops at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.
ARS wheat genotyping, quality, genetics, breeding and disease
research appears to be fully funded for FY07. The U.S. Wheat &
Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI) is managed by ARS and those
awards are now being processed. ARS has also distributed funds
from the U S. Wheat and Barley Stripe Rust Initiative to
university scientists as per National Wheat Improvement
Committee and ARS stripe rust research priorities. ARS is
providing funds from the Stripe Rust Initiative to a number of
public wheat and barley breeders who conduct regional testing
and stripe rust resistance breeding.
In 2007, ARS will provide one-year funding from the National
Plant Disease Recovery System to address urgent needs related to
Ug99, a new African stem rust mutant. Those one-year funds will
support the ARS cooperative agreement with CIMMYT and Kenyan
Agricultural Research Institute to screen U.S. wheat and barley
breeding lines in East Africa for resistance.
Funds will also be provided to enhance ARS seedling screening
for wheat and barley breeders at the Cereal Disease Lab, St.
Paul. ARS is monitoring for the appearance of any new cereal
rust strains throughout the U.S. in cooperation with U.S. wheat
and barley breeders and pathologists.
(The Web site for the Cereal Rust Bulletins is:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=9757)
ARS one-year stem rust funds will also be stretched to initiate
the “Southern Shield Strategy”. Small, specific cooperative
awards are being provided to wheat breeders in Texas, Louisiana,
Georgia and West Virginia to help support resistance breeding
for Ug99. The focus is on enhancing resistance along the
southern border of the U.S. This research will be expanded if
the Cereal Rust Initiative is funded in FY08. |
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