Plant disease poses threat to wheat crop

US agri adviser says virus-resistant varieties can fend off the danger.

ISLAMABAD:

A plant disease present in Iran may destroy 50% of wheat crop if it reaches here and the US has introduced two varieties that will resist this threat to ensure food security in Pakistan, says Ian C Winborne, Plant Health Adviser of US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal Plant Health Inspection Service.

“Ug99 (fungal disease) is a looming threat to Pakistan and may kill 50% of wheat crop leading to food crisis if it is transferred from Iran,” he said in an interview with The Express Tribune.

The disease has come from Uganda (Africa) and Middle East. “With the collaboration of US and Pakistan scientists, we have helped introduce two varieties – Narc 2011 and Pak-13 – to resist the disease attack on wheat crop,” he said.

The US has helped enhance productivity of wheat in a bid to increase production and income of small farmers to fend off the threat of food crisis. “We have brought a lot of varieties to test for high yield and resist diseases,” he said.

A new surveillance system has been put in place to monitor the disease. US Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched Wheat Productivity Enhancement Project in an effort to strengthen rust surveillance and facilitate synergies between Pakistan and international surveillance efforts.

It has also helped conduct pre-breeding to develop and test rust-resistant, high-performance wheat varieties. It has established a scientist exchange programme to create linkages between the US and Pakistan and build technical capacity.

According to Winborne, the US is helping Pakistan in spending money, allocated under the Kerry-Lugar bill, in several areas of the agriculture sector.

Dairy, cotton production

He saw great potential in the dairy sector as Pakistan was one of the top milk producing countries. “We expect to see development of a village-based dairy system in this country, which seems to be a rapidly growing market of the world,” he said, suggesting that an increase in food production was critical for food security.

Turning to cotton, Winborne said the US had launched the Cotton Productivity Enhancement Programme to mitigate the impact of Cotton Leaf Curl Virus on small farmers. The virus infection varies from year to year and annual yield loss may range from 10% to 40%. Over 3,000 cotton varieties have been imported from the US and planted here to test for virus resistance. Of these, 15 have been selected as having the potential to avert disease attack, which he termed a great success.

“We are also working with Pakistan’s agriculture institutes on different projects to demonstrate practices and technologies that can help rural farmers to more efficiently capture, store and use water for irrigation and reduce the loss of water and soil,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2015.

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