CYMMT announces stem wheat rust alert and new partnership to boost wheat yields
March 25, 2014 | 09:43 PM
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT), where scientist Norman Borlaug conducted the research that developed the high-yielding semi-dwarf wheat that created the Green Revolution, celebrated the 100th anniversary of Borlaug’s birth this week by discussing the continuing problem of stem rust and announcing a new partnership to increase wheat yields.
Farmers in East Africa and the Middle East are on alert after a damaging strain of a plant disease called stem rust decimated more than 10,000 hectares of wheat in southern Ethiopia, the largest wheat producer in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report discussed today at an international gathering of the world’s top wheat experts, CYMMT said in a news release from Ciudad Obregón, Mexico.
Ronnie Coffman
“Dr. Borlaug taught us that rust never sleeps, which is why we now have the capabilities to detect an outbreak like the one that has occurred in Ethiopia, and to quickly mobilize a global response,” said Ronnie Coffman, professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University, and director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project.
Coffman noted that the global consortiums Borlaug helped organize late in his life — now known as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative and the DRRW project — have been key to aggressive intervention in Ethiopia.
At a Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security, CYMMT also announced a new international partnership that seeks to increase wheat yields by 50 percent by 2034.
The partnership’s initiators include the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food of Mexico, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as the lead implementer of the United States Feed the Future initiative.
“Wheat is a key source of calories and protein for 4.5 billion people in more than 100 countries. Research focused on yield improvements is critical for them,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.
Tjada McKenna of the USAID Bureau for Food Security said, “Working together, through dynamic partnerships like this one, is what makes poverty and hunger solvable. The U.S. government is pleased to support this research aimed at increasing wheat production and resilience.”
Farmers in East Africa and the Middle East are on alert after a damaging strain of a plant disease called stem rust decimated more than 10,000 hectares of wheat in southern Ethiopia, the largest wheat producer in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report discussed today at an international gathering of the world’s top wheat experts, CYMMT said in a news release from Ciudad Obregón, Mexico.
Ronnie Coffman
“Dr. Borlaug taught us that rust never sleeps, which is why we now have the capabilities to detect an outbreak like the one that has occurred in Ethiopia, and to quickly mobilize a global response,” said Ronnie Coffman, professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University, and director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project.
Coffman noted that the global consortiums Borlaug helped organize late in his life — now known as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative and the DRRW project — have been key to aggressive intervention in Ethiopia.
At a Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security, CYMMT also announced a new international partnership that seeks to increase wheat yields by 50 percent by 2034.
The partnership’s initiators include the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food of Mexico, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as the lead implementer of the United States Feed the Future initiative.
“Wheat is a key source of calories and protein for 4.5 billion people in more than 100 countries. Research focused on yield improvements is critical for them,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.
Tjada McKenna of the USAID Bureau for Food Security said, “Working together, through dynamic partnerships like this one, is what makes poverty and hunger solvable. The U.S. government is pleased to support this research aimed at increasing wheat production and resilience.”
