Overview
This project aimed to address the threat to wheat production, caused by wheat blast, in Bangladesh and South Asia, by deploying resistant wheat varieties.
Wheat blast could spread and seriously threaten food security and livelihoods in South Asia. This project aimed to help meet this threat. With over 160 million people, Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries and, after rice, wheat is the country’s second most important staple food.
In February 2016, scientists notified the Government of Bangladesh of an outbreak of wheat blast (WB); a wheat disease caused by fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae Triticum (MoT). The outbreak, the first outside of South America, was rapid and large scale, causing significant crop losses to small-scale farmers. This first appearance of a highly-virulent form of MoT in South Asia represented a serious potential threat for the entire region, which is home to 300 million undernourished people and whose inhabitants consume over 100 million tonnes of wheat each year.
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