Indian wheat not effected by stem rust fungal disease

India is free from the deadly stem rust fungal disease in wheat which destroyed swathes of the staple foodgrain crop in Africa and other parts of the world, Parliament was informed today.

"Wheat varieties grown in India are resistant to most of the Indian races of stem rust. Several varieties are also resistant to the new race (Ug99) of stem rust as per testing carried out in Kenya and Ethiopia," Minister of State for Agriculture Arun Yadav said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

Ug99 stem rust has not yet been spotted in India as per the survey and crop health monitoring reports, Yadav added.

Indian wheat varieties have been evaluated at Kenya and Ethiopia against stem rust race Ug99 and around 30 of those varieties have been found to carry resistance to this disease, the minister said.

Still, the government have taken some preventive steps against the fungal disease, the minister said.

Extensive survey are in operation for detection of Ug99 in the country, he said adding Ug99 resistant genetic stocks are being used in wheat breeding programme to develop disease resistant varieties. Wheat is a major Rabi crop in India.

According to the government's second advance estimates, wheat production is likely to touch a new record of 81.47 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year and there are possibilities of it reaching even 84 million tonnes. The harvesting of wheat crop for the 2010-11 crop year in North India is expected to start from the month of April.

Harvesting in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and West Uttar Pradesh is likely to begin in the middle of April, according to Directorate of Wheat Research Project Director S S Singh.