Wheat blast

• A new study shows that wheat, the world’s most important food crop, is threatened by a blast disease pandemic.

About Wheat Blast

• The wheat blast is a fungal disease that affects wheat production in tropical and subtropical regions.
• It is caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT).
  • It was identified in Brazil in 1985.
• The fungus infects wild and cultivated grasses, most notably rice and wheat.
• It spreads through infected seeds, and crop residues as well as by spores that can travel long distances in the air.
• It spread to major-wheat producing areas in the country and then to other South American countries like Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.
• Asia’s first outbreak of this pathogenic wheat blast was reported in Bangladesh in 2016.