Heat Stress Resilient Maize Hybrids for Terai Region of Nepal
Rust Bowl or Breadbasket? Keeping track of wheat rust pathogens in Africa
1. Rust Bowl or Breadbasket?
Keeping track of wheat rust
pathogens in Africa
Dave Hodson1 and Kumarse Nazari2
1CIMMYT-Ethiopia Email: d.hodson@cgiar.org
2ICARDA Email: k.nazari@cgiar.org
2. Africa: Critical for Global Rust Control
“The kitchen where the
pathogen is cooked” P.
Njau, KARI
“rust is a shifty, changing, constantly evolving
Key Driving Factors:
enemy. We can never lower our guard .” EC
Continuous wheat : Green
bridge
Stakman, 1937.
Genetic uniformity of
commercial cultivars
High WE DID LOWER OUR GUARD! Rust
BUT elevation/high UV research
was forgotten in East Africa 1980’s - 2000
radiation (increased
mutations). Wide range of
environments
Alternate hosts? E.g.,
Berberis holstii
3. Out of Africa?: Dangerous Exports
East Africa is a 1992/3 1993/4
center for new 1991
1994/5
emerging rust
races (Yr9, Ug99 Yr9 1995/6
etc). 1991
Mid 80’s to mid
1986
90’s - Yr9 virulent
races caused 1986
significant crop
losses all the way Example Losses:
from East Africa to Turkey (1992):
South Asia USD$ 568 Million
Iran (1992-94):
USD$ 158 Million
4. Stem Rust Re-emerges Out of Africa
“Ug99” - Uganda
1998/9. 2007
Mutating and
migrating (2012: 8
Ug99
races identified in
group, present in 11 2006
Small wheat areas,
countries) small investments in wheat
2006
2009
Spread throughoutbig global 2005
- but problems!
Africa and into Asia
1998/9 2001
Further spread is
inevitable 2009
>80% of global 2009
commercial wheat 2009
cultivars are
susceptible 2000
5. Global Rust Monitoring: The
Catalyst – “Ug99”
Isolate Ug99 – race
TTKSK
Unique virulence. Large
% of commercial
cultivars susceptible
Realization that we need
a global system to
detect and monitor new,
virulent races of wheat
rusts
6. International Rust Monitoring: Stem Rust Model
Country Reports
RustTracker.org
Web portal
To Country
RustMapper
Full GIS
Spatial Database
Winds
Secondary Data
•Relies on national Climate, crops etc
surveillance
•Standard survey
protocols Field survey
•Added value + Trap Nurseries /
•Global Overview Samples plots
7. Response to Ug99: Progress to date
One of the most successful global
collaborations around a major crop threat
Global awareness on vulnerability of wheat crop (+
rusts in general)
Monitoring system in place: current status +
monitoring pathogen populations
Information systems / tools in place
International networks emerging, increased national
capacity for surveillance and monitoring
New sources of resistance identified
Resistant varieties in seed chain (E.g., Ethiopia
(EIAR/CIMMYT/ICARDA) 8 new rust resistant
varieties; Kenya (KARI/CIMMYT) 8 new rust
resistant varieties during 2010-2012)
8. The Global Surveillance Network
Transition from data poor to data rich environment
2007 countries n = 2; 2012 countries n = 28 (12 in Africa)
Contributing surveys cover about 20% of global wheat
area
2005 2012
9. Status: Pathogen Monitoring
1999: race TTKSK
“Ug99” identified
2012: 8 members of
the Ug99 race group
– we know what they
are and where they
are!
Spread throughout
Africa and into Asia.
Further spread very
likely Ug99 race group is now in 11 countries
10. Changing Pathogen Populations
2009/2010 Data
Race TTKSK
(original “Ug99” [red])
only predominates in
Ethiopia
Other Ug99 race
group races
predominate e.g.,
Sr24 variants
11. Keeping track of “lots” of data
Data management system
– The Wheat Rust
Toolbox (also South Asia
Toolbox) – collaboration
with GRRC and Sathguru
Surveys: 28 countries,
9000+ records
Pathotypes: 21 countries,
1075 isolates
12. Data Management: Wheat Rust Toolbox
NB: Generic - Applicable to all rusts Outputs:
• Survey Mapping
On-line Data Entry
• Pathotypes, +...
Smartphone /
tablet survey
Quality
tool control/publish
User Data Export
Management / Exchange
External Applications
Crop Problem Dbase e.g., RustMapper
(survey, pathotypes, [Trap nursery, Molecular] )
13. Public Information Systems:
WWW Rust Tracker.org
Aim:
Single source of up-to-date
information for all global wheat rust
monitoring activities
Content:
Country-specific info: 38 countries
Dynamic tools – Wheat Rust
Toolbox driven
www.rusttracker.cimmyt.org
14. Rust Tracker.org / Toolbox –
Platform for all rusts
All examples show Yellow Rust
Increased focus on other rusts
15. Summary
Now have a fully operational global disease monitoring system.
Surveillance and monitoring network, covering 35 countries and a
large proportion of the developing world wheat area
Tracked the spread and status of important stem rust races e.g.,
“Ug99 race group".
A robust and functional data management system - the Wheat Rust
Toolbox - is now in place.
Global collaboration is ensuring that key databases are shared and
being integrated into different information platforms.
Monitoring systems, especially in Africa, are critical and have to be
sustained if effective rust control is to be attained.
16. Key Points
Huge potential to increase African wheat production, but there has
to be a sustained and major effort to ensure that rusts are controlled
and monitored.
The fight against rusts is not a battle that can be won with a single
round of investments.
Currently the African wheat area is small and therefore attracts
relatively limited investments. If wheat attains a higher priority more
breeding programs can address rust resistance
Large wheat areas do NOT automatically equate with increased rust
problems. Current, small areas with little research investment cause
much greater problems
Sustained, effective rust control & monitoring in Africa would result
in significant global benefits for food security
17. Acknowledgments
All contributing national partners
PBI, University of Sydney Donors:
ICARDA Bill & Melinda Gates
CIMMYT Foundation
AAFC, Canada DFID
CDL, Minnesota, USA USAID
University of the Free State, South
IFAD
Africa
GRRC, Aarhus University,
Denmark
BGRI / Cornell University