8th INTERNATIONAL WHEAT CONFERENCE

The situation for fusarium head blight is not so different from blast disease. It is a severe
disease that affect the whole 90% of area where wheat is growing in Brazil. A good fungicide
control is not easy to achieve because the fungus can be hide behind the glum and
the fungicide can’ t reach the target efficiently. Besides, the resistance level is still low at
the wheat germplasm available, and again Embrapa put effort to find resistance genes.
For leaf rust there are several resistance cultivars available, however on the other hand
there are too many races of the pathogen that can frequently overcome the resistance at
the cultivars. Fungicide control is easy go get but turn the growing costs high and is bad to
the environment. For these reasons since few years ago Embrapa put effort to introgress
genes for partial resistance or adult-plant resistance as a breeding strategy and some cultivars
are already released and show a good level resistance to stem rust.
Among the three pathogen that cause foliar diseases in wheat the most important in Brazil
is Pyrenophora tritici-repentis because is directly linked to the no tillage system and it is
well adapted to the weather conditions in the south of the country. The cultivars available
are from susceptible to moderate resistance. The fungicide control is usually easy to get,
but in raining years, when the attack is more severe sometimes it’s not possible to enter in
the field with the machinery which lead to a completely fail of control in some fields.
As a conjunct of actions researchers at Embrapa are working together to find good sources
and gather the best resistance genes to introgress into the breeding program of wheat
toward better cultivars in quality, productivity and resistance to diseases.
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