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Iran's next wheat harvest will be 30 per cent less than forecast due to drought, forcing it to resume imports, the head of the national farmers` association was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Iran will import water from Tajikistan as part of a tripartite agreement between the Islamic Republic, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, according to Iranian Minister of Energy Majid Namjou.
Drought stricken, Iran buys US wheat for first time in 27 years
"This is a serious setback for Iran from a domestic point of view because they made a big deal about self-sufficiency in grains."
Scientists say theyre 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 worlds 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, Minnesota, thats part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, based at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, organizers said on 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.
According to a news release issued by the initiative ahead of the symposium, the fungus has now spread across all of eastern and southern Africa and it might just be a matter of time before it reaches India or Pakistan, and even Australia and the Americas. We are facing the prospect of a biological firestorm, but its also clear that the research community has responded to the threat at top speed and we are getting results in the form of new varieties that are resistant to rust and appealing to farmers, Ronnie Coffman, who heads the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell, said in the release. Researchers will report at the conference that new varieties of wheat under development at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico show resistance to all three kinds of wheat rust stem rust including Ug99, yellow rust and leaf rust the release said.
Some of those varieties also boost yields 10 to 15 percent, it said. However, significant obstacles must be overcome before the resistant new varieties of wheat can replace the susceptible varieties that make up as much as 90 percent of the wheat now in production, the researchers acknowledged. They called for more investments by wealthy countries and international institutions to continue developing the varieties, to help them keep them effective against diseases that continue to evolve and to develop the seed production and distribution infrastructure needed to put the new varieties in the hands of poor farmers in developing countries. The new strains mark a huge advance, said Marty Carson, research director at the US Department of Agricultures (USDA) Cereal Research Laboratory at the University of Minnesota in St Paul.
Anytime you can talk about a 15 percent boost in yields from existing varieties, I mean thats phenomenal. And to get combined resistance to all three rusts, thats also a very big deal, said Carson, who wasnt directly involved in that research. His lab, which is heavily involved in the fight against Ug99, is hosting the conference along with the University of Minnesota. Carson said in an interview that the wheat farmers in the developing world which the Mexican institute, known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT, is targeting with these new varieties dont have many other options, such as fungicides, for dealing with threats such as rust. And while he was skeptical about the 15 percent claim, he said even a lower yield increase would be a major accomplishment.
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New wheat strain...
Super wheat to boost food security, scientists say
Sat, Jun 11, 2011 - SUPER GRASS:A strain of stem rust has been wreaking havoc on wheat crops in eastern and southern Africa, but experts have responded to the threat at top speed
Scientists say theyre 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 worlds 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, Minnesota, thats part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, based at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, organizers said on 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.
According to a news release issued by the initiative ahead of the symposium, the fungus has now spread across all of eastern and southern Africa and it might just be a matter of time before it reaches India or Pakistan, and even Australia and the Americas. We are facing the prospect of a biological firestorm, but its also clear that the research community has responded to the threat at top speed and we are getting results in the form of new varieties that are resistant to rust and appealing to farmers, Ronnie Coffman, who heads the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell, said in the release. Researchers will report at the conference that new varieties of wheat under development at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico show resistance to all three kinds of wheat rust stem rust including Ug99, yellow rust and leaf rust the release said.
Some of those varieties also boost yields 10 to 15 percent, it said. However, significant obstacles must be overcome before the resistant new varieties of wheat can replace the susceptible varieties that make up as much as 90 percent of the wheat now in production, the researchers acknowledged. They called for more investments by wealthy countries and international institutions to continue developing the varieties, to help them keep them effective against diseases that continue to evolve and to develop the seed production and distribution infrastructure needed to put the new varieties in the hands of poor farmers in developing countries. The new strains mark a huge advance, said Marty Carson, research director at the US Department of Agricultures (USDA) Cereal Research Laboratory at the University of Minnesota in St Paul.
Anytime you can talk about a 15 percent boost in yields from existing varieties, I mean thats phenomenal. And to get combined resistance to all three rusts, thats also a very big deal, said Carson, who wasnt directly involved in that research. His lab, which is heavily involved in the fight against Ug99, is hosting the conference along with the University of Minnesota. Carson said in an interview that the wheat farmers in the developing world which the Mexican institute, known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT, is targeting with these new varieties dont have many other options, such as fungicides, for dealing with threats such as rust. And while he was skeptical about the 15 percent claim, he said even a lower yield increase would be a major accomplishment.
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