Wheat Blast Arrives in Zambia, First Time in Africa

Experts fear the fungal pathogen will spread to other African countries, threatening wheat production.

munya makoni
| 4 min read
Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum wheat blast zambia fungus

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ABOVE: Symptoms of wheat blast were first seen in experimental plots and small-scale farms in the Mpika district of Muchinga province in northern Zambia during the 2018 rainy season.
BATISEBA TEMBO

It could have been blown in by wind or transported by infected crop residue and maybe seeds—the exact mode of introduction remains debated. But the evidence for the presence of wheat blast is indisputable: the devastating fungal pathogen is now in Zambia, its first appearance in Africa.

“The detection of the disease in Africa is alarming,” Tarekegn Terefe, a wheat pathologist at South Africa’s Agriculture Research Council - Small Grain Institute, tells The Scientist. The disease is so deadly it can cause yield losses of more than 70 percent on susceptible cultivars, he says.

“The detection of the disease in Zambia puts southern African wheat-producing countries—South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Malawi—at high risk,” Terefe explains. Previous studies have documented the occurrence ...

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Meet the Author

  • munya makoni

    Munyaradzi Makoni

    Munyaradzi is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa. He covers agriculture, climate change, environment, health, higher education, sustainable development, and science in general. Among other outlets, his work has appeared in Hakai magazine, Nature, Physics World, Science, SciDev.net, The Lancet, The Scientist, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and University World News.

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