Rust Resistant Wheat Well-Received in Nepal
With active awareness among farmers, wheat breeders, and pathologists, Nepal is fully prepared to face the possible arrival of the stem rust race Ug99 as resistant varieties are already in farmers' fields. This is the statement of Sarala Sharma, Senior Plant Pathologist of Nepal Agricultural Research Council during a Village Development Committee Centre (VDC) activity in one of the farming communities in Nepal.
Sharma also described how successful the farmer participatory variety selection (PVS) approach is in terms of wheat production in the country as PVS resulted to rapid increase in adoption rates of new varieties and remarkable reduction of yellow rust in wheat yield. Through PVS, farmers have widened the coverage of rust resistant varieties, tested new options, and gradually replaced older, lower-yielding varieties, thus increasing production and productivity.
With the new varieties, the farmers enjoy a ten percent yield increase in wheat.
For more information, visit http://blog.cimmyt.org/?p=8465.
This article is part of the Crop Biotech Update, a weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology, International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)
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