World Bulletin / News Desk Wheat experts are stepping up
monitoring of a crop disease first found in Africa in 1999 to
minimise the spread of a deadly fungus that is also a threat in
Asia, experts said on Friday. A "Rust-Tracker", using data
supplied by farmers and scientists, could now monitor the fungus
in 27 developing nations across 42 million hectares (103 million
acres) of wheat - an area the size of Iraq or California. "It's
the most serious wheat disease," Ronnie Coffman, vice-chair of
the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), told Reuters ahead of
a meeting of wheat experts in Beijing from Sept. 1-4. "If it
gets started...it's like a biological firestorm," he said.
Experts will review progress in combating the disease, with
fungicides and 20 new resistant varieties developed in recent
years. The stem rust disease, forming reddish patches on plants
like rust on metal, is known as Ug99 after it was found in
Uganda in 1999. It has since spread as far as South Africa and
north to Yemen and Iran. The fun