MALNUTRITION: A new look at dry areas

5 August 2010 (IRIN) - Countries in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere, with vast dry tracts threatened by increasingly frequent droughts as the climate becomes more capricious, will have to rethink food production. Growing food will be about "more crop per drop", rather than getting the most out of every bit of land. Agricultural policies need to shift from a focus on "land productivity" to "water productivity", writes Theib Oweis, of the Syria-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in a compilation of abstracts of new research presented at a conference organised by the centre. The book provides a valuable snapshot of research that is probing the impact of climate change in countries like Qatar, Jordan, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan and Syria, and trying to develop coping strategies along the way. Drylands cover more than 40 percent of the global land area, and are home to nearly a third of the world's population, 90 percent of which live in developing countries, noted Awni Taimeh, professor of Land Use at the University of Jordan. Almost 95 percent of Qatar is desert, making the entire country a dry area. Dry areas can be found in almost any country and they all come with a peculiar set of problems - rapid population growth, chronic poverty, land degradation - which make the people living in them even more vulnerable. Besides country-specific research, the compilation has little gems on how weed will thrive in higher levels of carbon dioxide, and how a fungus could help prevent erosion. The world's arid areas have probably not had the coverage they need, but this book goes some way to filling the gap.

MALNUTRITION: Threat to wheat -- stripe (yellow) rust

An epidemic caused by a new strain of wheat fungus could cause billions of dollars in crop losses across North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, according to researchers.
The wheat stripe rust — or yellow rust (Yr) — epidemic is far worse than predicted, scientists from various Middle-Eastern institutions have found.
"The situation is severe, some farmers will suffer 30–60 per cent yield loss. In the worst cases, yield loss is 100 per cent," said Maarten Van Ginkel, deputy-director general for research at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria.
Key cereal production regions are affected and in some countries, like Syria, up to 80 per cent of fields are affected, according to recent surveys. Wheat agriculture provides food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people in these regions, which already suffer from production constraints caused by drought.
"Urgent action is needed to protect wheat crops on some 50 million hectares, and research centres and industry are urged to work together to fight the disease," Mahmoud Solh, director general of ICARDA, told SciDev.Net.
The comments come as experts gather for a meeting next week (30–31 May) in St Petersburg, Russia to map out new strategies for combating wheat rust pathogens that are threatening the world's wheat supplies.
The areas most affected by the stripe rust include Iran, Iraq, Morocco and Syria, according to scientists at ICARDA. Wheat fields in Afghanistan, Algeria and Tunisia are also affected.
Yellow rust attacks all plant parts, causing most damage to the leaves. It occurs early in the season and can continue to affect the crop until maturity, if night temperatures remain sufficiently low. Because of this long cycle, damage can be severe, said Van Ginkel.
The pathogen race able to overcome a major wheat resistance gene first emerged in 2002 in South Asia but unfavourable weather conditions limited its spread until 2009, when it started re-appearing.
Van Ginkel said his team is documenting and analysing the impact of the recent outbreaks.
Newly developed, resistant varieties of wheat are already available. But national research programmes must accelerate the process of releasing these varieties for cultivation and producing and distributing enough seeds from these varieties.
Governments will have to take appropriate measures, such as planting high-yielding, resistant varieties and continually monitoring affected areas, to prevent new outbreaks next year, Solh told SciDev.Net.
Yellow rust is different from the reddish brown fungus, Ug99, which is a type of stem rust that emerged in East Africa ten years ago.
"While the Ug99 race of stem rust has received considerable global attention in recent years, ICARDA has always stressed to need to remain vigilant against stripe rust," Solh said
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/stripe-rust-threat-to-wheat-worse-than-predicted.html