Continuing research on wheat rusts and management: Justification, Rationale and Approach

Wheat rusts have destructive role in reducing crop yield resulting in socio-economic insecurity during several era across the globe. Rust management to attain stable wheat production has been a challenge to crop scientists for over a century. The incidence of large-scale epidemics, frequent in the first half of the 20th century, has diminished due to an enhanced understanding of disease epidemiology, the genetic basis of host-pathogen interactions, use of diverse resistance genes, and the development of cultivars with rust resistance. Various wheat breeding programs throughout the world have had miscellaneous results in producing cultivars with long-lasting, effective resistance to wheat rust. Spring wheat breeding programs in North America, Mexico, and Australia have generally been very unbeaten in producing cultivars that have had high levels of durable and effective resistance. However climate change brings increasing temperatures, and has raised the variability and concentration of rainfall, contributing to the spread and severity of rust diseases.

Amir Afzal is Assistant Plant Pathologist in PPRI, AARI, Faisalabad and has been nominated for PhD studies at the PMAS AAUR in the Department of Plant Pathology. He is interested in breeding field crops grown under rainfed conditions to incorporate resistance against diseases. Author of more than 10 monographs and review articles in journals.