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Combatting wheat rust diseases

Strengthening national capacities and international collaboration









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    Stories of change - How to combat wheat rust diseases in Central and West Asia and North Africa: developing synergies and countries’ capacities 2019
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    Wheat rust diseases pose a serious threat to food security around the world. The wheat-producing countries in Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) are particularly vulnerable to these diseases because new races frequently appear. Without continuous surveillance to ensure effective monitoring and disease control, CWANA countries may face substantial grain yield losses. In collaboration with the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), FAO has facilitated trainings on surveillance, race analysis and management of wheat rust diseases at the Regional Cereal Rust Research Center in Izmir, Turkey. In the last three years, over 50 national officers from Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan have been trained. Rola El Amil, an Associate Researcher from the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI),  was among the trainees who attended the training course in 2018. Together with her peers, she was trained in the management and surveillance of rust diseases and race analysis, especially regarding yellow rust.
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    Regional collaboration is crucial to combat wheat rust diseases in Central and West Asia 2020
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    Wheat is the key crop for world food security. It covers the largest area of sowing, and alone supplies almost 20 percent of the calories consumed by the world population. Wheat productivity is crucial to meet the increasing demand for food. Rust diseases are among the main constraints affecting wheat production globally, especially when suitable climatic conditions prevail. Rusts affect almost all wheat producing regions, from the Americas to Australia. Wheat production in East and North Africa, in the Near East and West, and in Central and South Asia – which account for over 37 percent of total global wheat production area – is severely affected by wheat rust epidemics. To provide support, FAO continuously reinforces collaboration with its partners to boost countries’ ability to detect and manage these emerging wheat rust races.
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    Strengthening regional collaboration and national capacities for management of wheat rust diseases and resistance breeding in Central Asia and the Caucasus (CAC-Rust) 2021
    The CAC-Rust project has been developed to address wheat rust diseases faced by the countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The project will facilitate regional collaboration and strengthen national capacities to improve surveillance, race analysis and integrated disease management. It will also support the development and deployment of disease resistant varieties. The project will support activities in key domains: • facilitation of regional collaboration and networking, training of national technical officers, • support for disease surveillance, race analysis and mapping in support of the global rust monitoring system, • characterization of the resistance properties of popular varieties, • support for breeding programmes for developing resistant varieties, • integrated disease management and farmer training, • development of national strategies and contingency plans, and • strengthen the capacities of institutions for rust management. The primary beneficiaries of the project will be the national institutions and officers involved in research, extension, seed systems, and plant protection, as well as the farmers in the seven countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Neighbouring countries and surrounding regions would also benefit from the knowledge generated.

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