Rust Attack Could Cost India Province Up To 5% Of Wheat Yield

Matt Hopkins Posted by Matt Hopkins|9 March 2009

The Indian province of Punjab, which contributes 60% of the country’s wheat production, is facing a wheat yield loss of 3% to 5% due to a yellow rust attack on the crop, reports The Hindu. Despite the attack, Punjab is still hopeful of a bumper crop during the Rabi marketing season 2009/10, even with just over twenty days left before the beginning of the wheat procurement season.

The yellow rust fungus extensively attacked Punjab’s wheat crop in sub-mountainous areas last month, mainly hurting two popular
wheat varieties– PBW 343 and PBW 502 — which account for about 80% of total area under wheat cultivation. 

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According to Punjab Agricultural University’s Indu Sharma, “this (yellow rust attack) had been the severest one on the wheat
crop in the last two decades.” Sharma said that late-sowing wheat growers have been advised to spray
recommended chemicals to protect the crop from the fungus.

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