Wheat Blast: The plant pandemic that could leave billions hungry
Another catastrophic pandemic might already be in the making. It’s the plant pandemic.
A plant pandemic strikes plants. Fungi are responsible for a majority of plant diseases in the agricultural world.
Like the novel coronavirus, plant diseases can also mutate fast and spread through spores, microscopic particles that are carried by wind, rain and soil.
A new study shows that wheat, the world’s most important food crop, is threatened by a blast disease pandemic.
Wheat blast is a fungal disease that affects wheat production in tropical and subtropical regions and is caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT). The fungus may contribute to crop failure.
It was discovered in Brazil in 1985 and quickly spread to major wheat-producing areas of the country, as well as other South American countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.
In recent years, the disease has been introduced to Bangladesh and Zambia via international wheat trade, threatening wheat production in South Asia and Southern Africa with the possible further spreading in these two continents.
A new study conducted across five continents says that yield losses caused by pests and diseases average over 20 per cent. Most recently the wheat blast pandemic has affected Bangladesh and Zambia.
In Bangladesh in 2016, it destroyed around 15,000 hectares, spreading to more than 16 per cent of the country’s cultivated wheat area and consuming up to 100 per cent of yields.
Scientists have warned that the fungus could spread to other countries through spores carried by the wind or the import of infected seeds.
The big worry is that it will spread from Bangladesh to neighbouring India and China, which are two of the world's largest wheat exporters.
According to the study, climate conditions are likely to cause the spread of the disease, threatening global food security. This could leave billions hungry.
According to scientists, the global community should follow the spread of this fungus using methods like genetic monitoring used to track the spread and mutations of coronavirus.
One of the worst plant diseases was the Panama disease, which destroyed banana plantations in Central and South America in the 1950s, devastating a critical food source and industry, according to a report in The Scientific American.