 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
|
 |
| No fungus threat to wheat crop: govt |
|
|
|
Saturday, March 15, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s 2007/08 wheat crop faces no threat from a new variety of wheat stem rust that is spreading around the world and has reached neighbouring Iran, a Ministry of Food and Agriculture official said on Friday.
The new strain, called Ug99, was first found in Uganda in 1999 and has since spread to Yemen and last week was found in Iran that borders on Pakistan to the southwest. The fungus spores can be carried by wind over large distances.
“The Ug99 poses no threat to the present crop it will take some little while to reach Pakistan,” said Shakeel Ahmed, the ministry’s Wheat Commissioner. “We have done our work on it and hopefully, we can manage it.”
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said last week countries east of Iran, such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, all wheat producers, were most threatened by the fungus and should be on high alert.
The Ug99 has not yet been found in Pakistan. A senior official said last week a wheat output target of 24 million for the 2007/08 crop would be missed and the country may have to import up to 2 million tonnes for stocks and domestic needs.
Pakistan consumes about 22 million tonnes of wheat a year while nearly 1 million tonnes finds its way to neighbours Afghanistan and Iran, traders say. Pakistan produced 23.3 million tonnes of wheat in the 2006/07 crop year but had to import nearly 1.6 million tonnes after a shortage in September that resulted in soaring domestic prices. The spread of the wheat disease comes as world wheat stocks are already at 30-year lows and prices are soaring to record highs.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
