Stories tagged wheat

Brown plant hopper endangers world rice supply

World famine prevention: ID#6901
Courtesy CDC/ Dr. Lyle Conrad Rice is a crop that feeds nearly half the world’s people. The International Rice Research Institute is the world’s main repository of rice seeds as well as genetic and other information about rice. In the 1980s, the institute employed five entomologists, or insect experts, overseeing a staff of 200. Now it has one entomologist with a staff of eight.

"A potential solution is at hand for the plant hopper problem. No fewer than 14 new types of genetic resistance have been discovered. But with the budget cuts, the institute has mounted no effort to breed these traits into widely used rice varieties.

Doing so now would take four to seven years, if money could be found. In the meantime, the hoppers have become a growing threat. China, the world’s biggest rice producer, announced on May 7 that it was struggling to control the rapid spread of the insects there. A plant hopper outbreak can destroy 20 percent of a harvest; China is trying to hold losses to 5 percent in affected fields."

Green Revolution stops starvation in 1960s

In the 1960s, population growth was far outrunning food production. With many poor countries threatened by famine, money was devoted to agricultural research. With new varieties of corn, wheat, and rice, along with better growing techniques, yields of food per acre soared in the 1970s and by the 1980s, the threat of starvation had receded in most of the world.

Famine again threatens world's poor

Since 1980, world support for agriculture in poor countries has dropped tremendously. Such projects include not only research on pests and crops but also programs to help farmers adopt improved methods in their fields.

• Adjusted for inflation, the World Bank cut its agricultural lending to $2 billion in 2004 from $7.7 billion in 1980.
• The United States cut its support for agriculture in poor countries to $624 million from $2.3 billion (1980-2006).

Another Green Revolution needed

Around 2004, as the world economy began growing more quickly. Millions of people were gaining the money to improve their diets, but the food supply was lagging.

"The world began to use more grain than it was producing, cutting into reserves, and prices started rising. Early this year, as stocks fell to perilous levels, international grain prices doubled or even tripled, threatening as many as 100 million people with malnutrition."

Crop endangering bugs and diseases are quickly becoming immune to insecticides and fungicides. Brown plant hoppers can withstand up to 100 times the dose that used to kill it. Wheat varieties resistant to wheat rust are victim to new varieties of the fungus (read my post on "wheat futures" here)

“We must stay ahead of rapidly evolving pests — and increasingly, a changing climate — to assure global food security,” said Mr. Zeigler, the rice institute’s director. “Cutting back on agricultural research today is pure folly.”

Source article: New York Times

Tags : world food supply, World Bank, wheat, rice, research funding, Nilaparvata lugens, International Rice Research Institute, green revolution, famine, brown leaf hopper

read more... | add a comment | share

Wheat shortage results in record prices

Wheat prices soar
Courtesy USDA Last month the cost of wheat surged to a record $19.80 a bushel (Feb. 16) on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Wheat historically trades at $3 to $7 a bushel. If you like eating breads, rolls, croissants, bagels and pizza crusts, better be prepared for higher prices. While we may be inconvenienced, a wheat shortage in many parts of the world will result in death by starvation.

Wheat infection spreading

Wheat plants feed more people than any other single food source on the planet. Wheat is now under attack by a virulent strain of black stem rust fungus (Puccinia graminis) known as Ug99.

Black stem rust itself is nothing new. It has been a major blight on wheat production since the rise of agriculture, and the Romans even prayed to a stem rust god, Robigus. NewScientist

Norman Borlaug sounds alarm

When it hit the North American breadbasket, in 1954, it wiped out 40 per cent of the crop. Norman Borlaug solved that wheat rust problem and earned a Nobel Prize by developing wheat that resisted stem rust. Borlaug, known as the father of the Green Revolution, (now 93 and fighting cancer) is leading the charge against his old enemy.

"This thing has immense potential for social and human destruction." When Ug99 turned up in Kenya in 2002, he sounded the alarm. "Too many years had gone by and no one was taking Ug99 seriously," he says. He blames complacency, and the dismantling of training and wheat testing programmes, after 40 years without outbreaks.

Resistant wheat development started too late

Ug99, that sprang up in Africa in 1999 has now spread into Iran and threatens to spread into other wheat producing regions of Asia, namely Pakistan and India, which accounts for 20 percent of the annual world wheat production. CIMMYT estimates that from two-thirds to three-quarters of the wheat now planted in India and Pakistan are highly susceptible to this new strain of stem rust.

“In addition, 75 to 80 percent of our breeding material is also susceptible to this disease. We are running out of resistant genes to deploy in the face of this highly virulent disease.” Dr. Jim Peterson, wheat breeder at Oregon State University and chair of the National Wheat Improvement Committee (NWIC)

Resistant wheat maybe 5 years away

"The spores of wheat rust are mostly carried by wind over long distances and across continents. Scientists met this week in Syria to decide on emergency measures to track Ug99's progress. They hope to slow its spread by spraying fungicide or even stopping farmers from planting wheat in the spores' path. The only real remedy will be new wheat varieties that resist Ug99, and they may not be ready for five years." NewScientist.

Tags : wheat, Ug99, Puccinia graminis, Norman Borlaug, National Wheat Improvement Committee, health, green revolution, Global Rust Initiative, CIMMYT, natural disaster

read more... | add a comment | share