Meeting the Challenge of Yellow Rust in Cereal Crops - ICARDA

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Occurrence and importance of
yellow rust in Tajikistan
B. Pett, H. Muminjanov, A. Morgounov and M. Otambekova
GTZ/CIMMYT Project, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Introduction
In Tajikistan, wheat pathology has largely been neglected till now. There has
been a lack of knowledge on the occurrence, symptomatology and importance
of wheat diseases in Tajikistan, and only very scarce information on cereal
rusts. The GTZ/CIMMYT Project Regional Network on Wheat Variety Promotion
and Seed Multiplication aims to carry out intensive research on wheat diseases
and pests, and to provide tools for local breeders and farmers to evaluate their
varieties and breeding lines for resistance or tolerance to rusts and other wheat
diseases.
In a first step, the work has focused on collecting data on the occurrence of
yellow and other wheat rusts, and their importance in Tajikistan. This also
provided first information on the resistance level of some wheat varieties to
yellow rust.
Material and methods
Localities considered in this study are:
• Isfara (north Tajikistan, 560 masl, dry climate, irrigation)
• Gissar (central Tajikistan, 920 masl, irrigation)
• Dangara (south-east Tajikistan, 760 masl, dry, irrigation)
• Sovietskiy (south-east Tajikistan, 950 masl, rainfed area)
Data were recorded in June–July 2003 on the infection level on leaf and stem
as percentage leaf or stem area covered in the field.
Results and discussion
The wheat disease monitoring has shown that stripe or yellow rust is the most
damaging disease on wheat in Tajikistan, followed by brown (leaf) rust. Stem
rust seems to be of less importance (Figure 1). Of all infected samples
examined, 65% were of yellow rust, 17.8% of brown rust and only 5.2% of stem