More than 10 new wheat varieties with better resistance to the
devastating wheat blast disease have been released through a global
collaboration supported by ACIAR.
Detected in Bangladesh for the first time in 2016, wheat blast can
decimate wheat crops and with it the livelihoods of farmers and their
families.
To curb this devastation and potentially prevent the disease
spreading to other warmer regions of the globe, the international scientific
community collaborated to find solutions.
As part of a project
supported by ACIAR, the project team established 3 screening
platforms to identify wheat with blast resistance—one in Bangladesh and 2 in
Bolivia.
The resistant wheat germplasm identified through the screening process was then used to breed and release varieties adapted to Bangladesh.
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