Fusarium places grain markets at risk

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Published: December 18, 2003

When almost everyone’s got the disease, it doesn’t seem so bad.

But some new wheat exporters don’t suffer from fusarium head blight, and that will give them an edge in the world wheat market if the traditional exporters don’t get rid of it in their own crops, says a world expert on the disease.

“You need to resolve that if you want to remain on the market,” said Ir Maarten van Ginkel, the head of the bread wheat breeding and gene bank programs at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Veracruz, Mexico.

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“It’s going to be used immediately against you.”

Canada, the United States, Argentina and the European Union all suffer from fusarium head blight. The only major exporter without a big fusarium problem is Australia.

But some minor or non-traditional exporters also don’t have serious problems with fusarium.

These include Kazakhstan, India and Pakistan, all of which have exported wheat in the past two years and have the ability to significantly increase their wheat production.

Fusarium strikes when wheat crops experience warm and wet conditions during the flowering period. Fusarium will not strike even if it is warm and humid during other times of the crop’s development.

Unfortunately for Canada, the U.S., Europe and Argentina, rainy and warm weather is common at wheat flowering time.

In Kazakhstan, it is not. And in India and Pakistan, even though their crops get double the amount of rain that wheat crops receive on the North American prairie, the moisture seldom arrives during flowering, van Ginkel said.

“They have beautiful grain and they can compete with you on that,” said van Ginkel.

Fusarium is a major problem worldwide for wheat and corn crops. Recently, about 200 Canadian and foreign experts spent three days discussing progress against the disease at the third Canadian Workshop on Fusarium Head Blight in Winnipeg, at which van Ginkel spoke.

The disease is not confined to developed nations. It is also a major problem in developing regions such as China, Brazil, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In most developing nations the greatest worry about fusarium is not the toxin DON it leaves in affected wheat and corn kernels.

Farmers, consumers and governments are most hurt by the yield loss the disease brings.

“They’re more interested in productivity, yield, how to feed the larger populations in the cities,” said van Ginkel.

But in countries like China and Brazil, toxin levels are a major concern and the subject of much research.

Van Ginkel said all the developing nations will become more concerned about toxins once they can easily feed themselves.

The luckiest wheat farmers in the world are those like India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Egypt, where fusarium has little chance of attacking the crop in flower, he said.

As toxin worries increase around the world, these countries will be able to benefit if they can produce surplus wheat for export sale, van Ginkel said.

Canada doesn’t risk losing all of its wheat sales if it continues to suffer from fusarium, he said. The growth in the world population and the increased demand for the major grains is still outstripping the increase in production.

“All of us will be barely able to keep up with the three major crops,” said van Ginkel, referring to wheat, corn and rice.

“There will be a place for all of us to contribute.”

But if Canadian farmers want to sell to the markets that demand high quality and pay premium prices, they had better eliminate the fusarium problem.

“It will be used against you,” said van Ginkel.

About the author

Ed White

Ed White

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