Years of work loom to save world wheat from fungus

Posted 2011/06/09 at 8:07 pm EDT

WASHINGTON, June 9, 2011 (Reuters) — A devastating wheat fungus is active in 11 countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to scientists striving to develop resistant varieties before the fungus can attack fields around the globe.

A farmer drives a combine to harvest wheat in Zouping county, Shandong province, May 30, 2011. REUTERS/China Daily

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Up to 90 percent of the world’s wheat is susceptible to the strain of stem rust, called Ug99, first detected in Uganda in 1999. The oval, brick-red lesions of stem rust sap wheat plants and cut yields by 50 to 70 percent over wide areas and can destroy entire fields

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