ISLAMABAD: The Internatio­nal Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (IMWIC) has advised agricultural scientists in Sindh to develop new wheat seeds which are resistant to yellow rust — a new strain which has emerged in all types of wheat in the province.

This disease has existed in the cold areas previously, but due to changes in the climate, the strain has changed its pattern and is moving to other areas.

The environment for this type of rust had now become favourable in wheat crop in Sindh where it was travelling, IMWIC country representative for Pakistan Mohammad Imtiaz said here on Wednesday while giving his presentation at the annual wheat planning seminar.

The wheat crop in Sindh had been affected by the yellow rust over the past two to three years since the seed was not pest resistant. Agricultural scientists in Sindh had been provided with the germ plasm to develop new yellow rust-resistant varieties of wheat seeds for distribution to farmers in the province, he said.

The official warned that a strategy had to be evolved, otherwise wheat farmers in the province would have to battle with the new strain and if not controlled, the future of wheat crop in Sindh would be threatened.

The strains of yellow rust had also been found in some areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Punjab and central Punjab, he disclosed.

Dr Imtiaz listed four challenges during his presentation: spreading of stripe rust to Sindh and high diverse population in Pakistan, and stem and leaf rust; increasing occurrence of high-infection ‘Karnal Bunt’ (KB) disease; wheat blast threat, moved from Bangladesh to India and on the move; and increasing climate variability — more rain in late season.

He called for establishment and making operational rust research facilities in Pakistan to increase focus on stripe and leaf rust with further enhancing base for stem rust-resistant varieties.

Since it was emerging as a regional problem, there was a need for establishing a hub for KB-resistance breeding and management which could serve as an international platform for screening as the disease was important for Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, he said.

During 2016-17, 439 yellow rust, stem rust and leaf rust observations were made. At the national wheat rusts research facility, samples of 400 yellow rust, 200 leaf rust and 150 stem rust were analysed, with 2,000 rust samples obtained during 2012 and 2017, he said.

According to details shared at the wheat planning seminar, some 144.8 tonnes of nine varieties of early generation seeds will be available during the 2017-18 Rabi season. These are: Pakhtunkhwa-15, Pirsabak-15, NIFA-Insaaf 2015, Nifa-Aman, Ujala-16, Borlaug-16, Gold-16, Jauhar-16 and Ihsan-16.

Dr David Marshall of the US department of agriculture also addressed the seminar, highlighting the achievements of USDA-supported ‘Wheat Productivity Enhan­­ce­ment programme (WPEP).

Later, he told newsmen that almost half of the wheat seeds available in Pakistan were rust-resistant.

Rust disease was a major challenge in Pakistan, but the country had done a great job in developing rust-resistant wheat varieties, he said.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2017