Wheat crop under yellow rust attack in south Punjab

MULTAN: The yellow rust has attacked the standing wheat crop in almost all districts in south Punjab, which may cause a considerable decline in the production, The News has learnt.

The yellow rust is a fungal disease which turns the leaves into yellowish colour and affects the photosynthesis activity, which eventually could result in drop of yield. A continuous change in climatic conditions and weather, particularly unabated rains received in wheat growing areas, a couple days before, promoted humidity, provided ample environment to yellow rust spread and started destroying the crop, agriculture officials said.

The bad luck continues as the Metrology Department has predicted a new spell of western rains from Wednesday to Friday. The new spell of rains would further promote humidity.

The detection of yellow rust disease in the south Punjab wheat growing districts has raised anxiety among farmers about drop in the yield. The wheat growers said that wheat crop was facing a critical yellow rust attack mainly because of lack of research on rust resistant wheat seed varieties. The breeders have lacked a single rust resistant variety to grow, they added.

Safdar Samija, a small wheat farmer at Multaniwala village, said that the disease was destroying wheat sown over thousands of acres in Multan district. Poor farmers were panicking from the financial losses they were going to face, he added. The yellow rust was the most damaging disease but the present and past governments did not make serious efforts in promoting research on rust resistant seed varieties, he said.

Meanwhile, Punjab Agriculture Information Deputy Director Naveed Asmat Kahloon said that the government was fully vigilant to prevent yellow rust. He said that in the beginning, the yellow rust was found on 34 spots on Feb 20, including Dera Ghazi Khan 12 spots, Bahawalpur 12 spots and Multan 10 spots. No signs of yellow rust could be traced out in Sahiwal district, he told. However, the disease was found in each wheat growing district in the south Punjab now, he infomed. The government was making efforts to introduce susceptible varieties, he said. He advised the farmers to remain vigilant, particularly during rainy and humid days. Rust can be better controlled when the crop was about 7 to 8 leaves or at stem elongation growth stage, he said. Naveed Kahloon was of the view that yellow rust was an important disease of wheat in the subcontinent since 1786. Currently, it prevails across all the wheat growing areas from north to south in the country, he continued.