WERA_OLD097: DISEASES OF CEREALS
Statement of Issues and Justification
The cereal grains, particularly wheat and barley, constitute major cash crops throughout the western region of the United States. The types of cereal grains produced are diverse, including soft white winter, soft white spring, club, hard red winter, hard red spring, and durum wheat classes; 2-row and 6-row winter and spring feed and malting barley types; hay, grain and/or forage oat types; and grain and/or forage triticale types. Areas of production for these diverse crops overlap throughout the western region, and production occurs in both high and low rainfall areas, with or without irrigation, and under a wide-range of other production inputs (level of fertilization and degree of weed, insect, and disease control inputs). Production is geared for bulk commodity and specialized niche domestic markets as well as for export. Diseases of cereals are diverse in their number and dynamic in their annual economic impact.Cereal producers, striving to maximize economic returns and reduce production costs, are adopting changes in tillage and cultural practices such as direct seeding (i.e., minimum or no-till), shorter rotations, earlier fall seeding, increased soil fertility, and, where water is available, more frequent irrigation. All of the above factors have profound effects on cereal diseases, which are or may become serious threats to cereal grain production. Cereal producers are desperate for assistance to reduce operating costs and minimize disease losses.
Diseases caused by newly introduced or detected pathogens, and variants (i.e., new races) of current pathogens, pose especially serious threats. Heightened Homeland Security concerns following the attacks of September 11, 2001 have focused attention on the importance of food security in the United States and on the vulnerability of agriculture to introduced or existing pathogens and pests. President Bush signed into law the Agricultural Bioterrorism Protection Act of 2002 to address that threat and CSREES followed by establishing the Animal & Plant Disease and Pest Surveillance & Detection Network. The National Plant Diagnostic Network, divided into five regions (with the Western Plant Diagnostic Network based at the University of California, Davis, and the Great Plains Plant Diagnostic Network based at Kansas State University), focuses on plant diseases and pests. This program complements the Invasive Species Program (established by Executive Order by Former President Clinton in 1999) that mandates a management plan which identifies, monitors, and interdicts pathways that may be involved in the introduction of invasive species. With its links between research, extension, and industry, WERA-97 is ideally suited to play key roles in these efforts. Karnal bunt of wheat was a dramatic and economically serious example of an introduced species that affected a crop in the United States; its detection (initially in March, 1996, in Arizona) caused major disruptions in United States grain trade with 21 countries and the economic ramifications remain unclear. More recently (2000-2004), epidemics of wheat stripe rust affected wheat growing regions across the country as new races of Puccinia striiformis developed and became established. Stripe rust caused extensive losses (USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory estimated the loss to wheat stripe rust in 2003 at nearly 89 million bushels).
Other cereal diseases have recently invaded the region or have emerged as important damaging diseases. Barley stripe rust, which appeared in the United States for the first time in 1991 and caused severe epidemics in the late 1990s, is similar to wheat stripe rust with regard to the establishment of many new races and thus is a threat to all barley varieties used by the malting and feed barley industry. High Plains disease, first detected in 1993, caused major yield losses in corn in several states including Idaho, Utah, and Colorado, and continues to threaten the wheat, barley and corn industry throughout the Great Plains and Intermountain states. Fusarium head blight (scab) spread from the Corn Belt states into the Great Plains, causing millions of bushels in lost production, numerous farm and equipment sales, and disruption of farm families and whole communities. Over the next several decades, increased emphasis on disease prevention/control will be required to enable growers to remain competitive in the international market, and to meet the demand for control measures with less adverse environmental impacts.
WERA-97 is the only specific regional body providing for coordination of research, extension, and education on diseases of cereals in the western region. With the decline in overall support for agricultural research, continued coordination and exchange of research information among states in the western region is crucial for efficient allocation of a shrinking resource base. Current member states include California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The Committee welcomes participation and input from states outside the region and is reaching out to currently non-participating western states (Arizona and New Mexico) to solicit their involvement. The joint meetings with the Western Wheat Workers at Davis, California, in 2001, at Pendleton, Oregon, in 2003, and at Pullman, Washington, in 2004 are good examples of the Committee reaching out to a wider spectrum of researchers and disciplines related to plant pathology.
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