Meeting the Challenge of Yellow Rust in Cereal Crops - ICARDA

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Yellow rust resistance of bread wheat varieties of Eastern
Europe in Azerbaijan
M.H. Seidov, A.M. Abdullaev, E.R. Ibrahimov and K.K. Aslanova
RI of Agriculture, Baku, Azerbaijan
Over a decade (1998–2007), bread wheat accessions from ICARDA, CIMMYT
and other countries were investigated in different agro-ecological regions of
Azerbaijan. Yield and infection levels of fungal yellow rust were studied.
Bread wheat varieties of Eastern Europe provided relevant data. Investigations
were carried out in Fate Garabaq’s irrigated Tarter Regional Experimental
Station and Mountainous Shirvan’s (Gobustan RES) rainfed area. Following
observation, it was shown that in comparison with recognized local wheat
varieties Qobustan, Ruzi-84 and Azamatly-95, Eastern European varieties
showed 80–90% infection of yellow rust. Some, such as SG-RU 6148, BURBOT-
4, AGRI/NAC//KAUZ, EST4-SITTA//AGRI-NAC, W 409/СПН and
TAM200/7/85ZHONG 56/8/KS82 were highly resistant to yellow rust. These
varieties showed high resistance levels (R-MR) to yellow rust under both
irrigated and rainfed conditions. In the mountainous Shirvan region, yellow
rust severity on cv. Jagger was very low. This variety showed resistance (MR)
to this disease and has been sown in breeding nurseries. Yield of Eastern
European varieties was not low in both regions. In rainfed areas, most of these
varieties had a yield of 3.0–5.7 h/ha, in some cases 6.2 t/ha. Investigations for
several years show that due to the late appearance of yellow rust disease, yield
losses were low. In 2003, yellow rust appeared in the Garabaq region at the end
of May and in the Shirvan region at the beginning of June. It should be noted
that in some varieties with an increased incidence of yellow rust, yield
decreased sharply, indicating the potential for yield loss among susceptible
varieties. For example, in Qobustan, RES ARLIN-KS89H130, TAM-200-
FUNDULLA, KS90WGRC10SIB-RS92WGRC-16, T-53-97TURDA and TAM-
107-83WN-55 showed high disease incidence (90-100S), and yields were
severely reduced (2.0–2.5 t/ha). Since yellow rust occurrence is very frequent,
the cultivation of tolerant varieties should be promoted to minimize crop
losses.