Billionaire computer mogul Bill Gates has temporarily turned his attention from fighting computer viruses to combating a deadly wheat fungus.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable organization established by the chair of Microsoft, is providing $26.8 million over the next three years to fund research into developing new wheat cultivars resistant to Ug99, a virulent strain of stem rust.
First discovered in Uganda in 1999, Ug99 has since made its way into Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Sudan and was recently discovered in Iran. The fear is that Iran will provide a springboard into major wheat producing regions like Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, where 90 percent of the varieties grown are susceptible to the disease.
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Norman Borlaug, an American plant breeder who developed the stem rust-resistant wheat that led to the Green Revolution, said the new Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project led by Cornell University, which brings together 15 institutions from around the world, is a critical response to a scary threat.
“(It) can help avert a global rust pandemic that can rob tens of millions of tons from production,” he said.
Tom Fetch, cereal stem rust researcher with Agriculture Canada, is the only Canadian scientist who will be getting a portion of the Gates money, albeit less than $40,000.
But every little bit counts when fighting one of the most destructive wheat diseases on the planet. A rust outbreak in 1954 resulted in a 40 percent yield loss to the Canadian spring wheat crop.
“You can have a whole crop that was looking nice and green and tall, and in two weeks it can be breaking over and you get zero yield,” said Fetch.
Eighty-five percent of the 70 Canadian spring wheat varieties Fetch had tested in Kenya are susceptible to Ug99. Only three cultivars displayed good resistance – Peace, AC Cadillac and AC Micheal – none of which are widely grown.
Fetch is conducting basic genetic research on those varieties to determine if the resistance is due to one gene or a combination; the latter would provide a better line of defence.
Breeders are using the three lines and other known sources of resistance to create more varieties that can stand up to the disease.
“We’re already in good shape. We’re hoping to get there before this thing arrives, if it ever does arrive,” said Fetch.
Several registered fungicides would also help prevent the kind of losses sustained in 1954.
“For environmental impact we don’t like to see a lot of fungicide use, but if it had to be, that would be our backstop,” he said.
Scientists say it is only a matter of time before the Ug99 strain makes its way to North America.
Fetch said the spores are more likely to arrive on the pant cuff of an airline passenger than to travel on wind currents from Africa, the Middle East or Asia.
Once the disease finds a North American host, it can spread with blinding speed. Stem rust produces a tremendous amount of spores compared to other fungi.
Fetch encouraged farmers to scout their wheat and durum fields this summer and to report any signs of the disease.
