Workshop on wheat rust diseases brings together leading expert organizations
Ankara – As concerns rise about global food security, an online regional workshop has shed light on the threats posed by wheat rust diseases. The workshop took place on 5 April 2022 and was organized by the Regional Cereal Rust Research Centre within the framework of the CAC-Rust project “Strengthening regional collaboration and national capacities for surveillance and management of wheat rust diseases in Central Asia and Caucasus”. Key participants included representatives of FAO, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey (MAF), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), and countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
The workshop was opened by Suat Kaymak, Head of Department of Plant Health Research at the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies of MAF, who enumerated the various factors affecting wheat production, including climate change. Ayşegül Selışık, FAO Turkey Assistant Representative, highlighted some key distinctions between larger farms and smallholder farms in terms of ability to cope with wheat rust diseases, and underlined the importance of access to knowledge and resources, especially for smaller farms. She also expressed her gratitude to the Government of Turkey for allocating resources through the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programmes (FTPP) to tackle the problem of wheat rust diseases in Central Asia.
Mesut Keser of ICARDA praised the outcomes of cooperation between FAO and ICARDA, noting that the impacts extend beyond the borders of Turkey. Abdelfattah Ameer Dababat, CIMMYT Country Representative, affirmed the readiness of the CIMMYT to collaborate with national institutions to address issues related to wheat rust diseases as well as other diseases. Hafiz Muminjanov, Technical Adviser from FAO Headquarters expressed his appreciation to Government of Turkey, CIMMYT and ICARDA on continued collaboration for sustainable increase of wheat production to meet the raising demands and called to raise the awareness on importance of wheat rust monitoring and control. Finally, Ali Peksüslü, Director of the Aegean Agriculture Research Institute, provided information about the institute’s work and expressed his gratitude to the participants for their interest in the workshop.
The second part of the workshop provided presentations from scientific institutions on recent developments regarding wheat production and wheat rust research in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the seven countries concerned by the CAC-Rust project.
These country overviews were followed by a presentation by Fazıl Düşünceli, Lead Technical Officer of the CAC-Rust Project, who presented the project’s outputs, roadmap and foreseen activities in key thematic areas: collaboration and information sharing, integrated disease management, disease surveillance, breeding for disease resistance and capacity building. Kumarse Nazari, Head of the ICARDA Regional Cereal Rust Research Centre, then gave a short introduction to the centre’s work and gave a presentation on survey methodologies, highlighting the importance of information sharing, training, continuous surveillance and monitoring of evolving races for wheat improvement.
The workshop ended with a general discussion session and a video on protocols and techniques for wheat rust surveillance and sampling.
The CAC-Rust project is supported by the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme and is implemented by FAO over a five-year period in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey, ICARDA, CIMMYT and the International Winter Wheat Improvement Programme (IWWIP).
About the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programmes
The objectives of the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programmes are to provide support to ensure food security, rural poverty reduction and sustainable forest management; combat desertification; and preserve ecosystems in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and other countries of mutual interest.
Established in 2007, the first phase of the FAO Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP) has benefited from trust fund contributions totalling USD 10 million, financed by the Government of Turkey and represented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. During the first phase of the programme, 28 projects were implemented in 16 countries between 2009 and 2015.
In 2014, Turkey and FAO commenced the second phase of the FTPP along with the first phase of the FAO-Turkey Forestry Partnership Programme (FTFP) with additional funding of USD 20 million, bringing Turkey’s total contribution to USD 30 million.
LINKS: