Ciudad Obregón, Mexico
February 26, 2009Source:
International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Led by Nobel Prize winner
Norman Borlaug, Mexico hosts extraordinary international
gathering of wheat experts committed to combating new strain of
stem rust
The sudden and unexpected re-emergence of a fungus that could
cripple wheat production in Africa, Asia and, eventually, Europe
and the Americas, has prompted wheat experts from around the
world, led by Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug, the father of
the Green Revolution, to gather March 17-20 in Ciudad Obregón,
Mexico, to map out a strategy for averting agricultural disaster
for a crop that provides food and livelihoods for hundreds of
millions of people.
In an indication of the international scope of the threat,
scientists from an unprecedented number and range of countries—
among them Australia, China, Iran, India, Egypt, the U.S.,
Mexico, Kenya, Uruguay, South Africa, Canada, Denmark, and
Ethiopia—will present new information on the development and
distribution of wheat that is resistant to a new strain of wheat
stem rust called Ug99. The spread of this virulent new strain is
ultimately expected to require replacement of most wheat
varieties under cultivation worldwide.
In the 1950s, a fatal strain of wheat stem rust invaded North
America and, at one point, ruined 40 percent of the spring wheat
crop. The epidemic prompted Borlaug, working with a team of
scientists in Mexico, to develop highly productive,
rust-resistant varieties that helped launch the Green
Revolution. The work was credited with averting hunger and
starvation for millions worldwide and earned Borlaug the 1970
Nobel Peace Prize. For decades, wheat varieties that were a
product of the Green Revolution have kept farmers safe from stem
rust. But these varieties are not resistant to a new strain of
stem rust that emerged unexpectedly several years ago in Uganda
and shows signs of posing a significant threat to wheat
production worldwide.
The site of the meeting in Ciudad Obregón is where Borlaug and
his Mexican partners did much of their original work. It is home
to a wheat research station owned by the Mexican agricultural
research program, INIFAP, and the farmer association Patronato,
and used by the Mexico-based
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (in
Spanish: Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo,
or CIMMYT) as a hub for its global wheat research efforts. The
meeting is part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, led by
Cornell University, CIMMYT, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the International Center for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).
For a complete list of the executive committee of the Borlaug
Global Rust Initiative, please see:
http://www.globalrust.org/about_us.cfm?m=2.
WHEN: March 17-20, 2009
WHERE: Fiesta Inn, Ciudad Obregón, Mexico (Accessible via air
either directly or through Mexico City airport)
WHAT: The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative 2009 Technical Workshop
DETAILS: Agenda and background information available at:
http://www.globalrust.org/content.cfm?ID=46
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