The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative

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Rust in the News

Significant Work Still Needed to Really Crack Wheat’s Genetic Code
31 August 2010 - International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium
The International Wheat Genome Sequence Consortium (IWGSC), an international consortium of wheat growers, public and private breeders and scientists, strongly disagrees with implications that the sequence reads made available by a UK team, led by Professor Neil Hall, represent in any way the sequence of the wheat genome or that this work is comparable to genome sequences for rice, maize, or soybean.

The Price of Wheat
27 August 2010 - New York Times
Agricultural experts say they’re not worried about the recent jump in wheat prices, caused largely by the drought in Russia and the ban on Russian wheat exports. The Department of Agriculture is predicting that world wheat production will reach the same level this year — 645 million metric tons — that helped bring prices down from their astonishing $13.50 a bushel peak in February 2008. At present, prices for December wheat are about $6.95 a bushel, down over 50 cents from a month ago, but up nearly 55 percent since early June...

Genome breakthrough heralds new dawn for agriculture
27 August 2010 - Independent (UK)
In a scientific tour-de-force that has been hailed as the most significant breakthrough in wheat production since the cereal crop was cultivated by the first farmers more than 10,000 years ago, scientists have decoded the genome of the wheat plant...

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BGRI Photos, Video, Audio

8th International Wheat Conference and BGRI 2010 Technical Workshop

Some 530 scientists from 77 wheat-producing nations gathered for the 8th International Wheat conference (8IWC) from June 1-4, 2010, in the historic city of St. Petersburg, Russia. The IWC is held every five years, the last conference taking place in La Plata, Argentina, in 2005.The famous Vavilov Institute—one of the oldest and most comprehensive collections of germplasm—hosted the conference. “Every major wheat-producing country was represented and there was a strong private sector presence,” said Hans Braun, director, CIMMYT Global Wheat Program. “This really showed that wheat is back on the research agenda.” ...

Stem Rust Scoring Course, Njoro, Kenya, 28 Sept-6 Oct 2009

This course, developed by CIMMYT and KARI-Njoro, was designed to train National Programs' pathologists and breeders score for stem rust infection occurrence in wheat. ...

4th Regional Yellow Rust Conference, Antalya, Turkey, 10-12 October 2009

Conference info and list of participants ...

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The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), founded by the late Dr. N.E. Borlaug, replaces the Global Rust Initiative (GRI) established as an outcome of the May 2005 Expert Panel report (see Recommendation #10) of race Ug99 in Kenya and Ethiopia and the potential for impact in neighboring regions and beyond.

The BGRI has the overarching objective of systematically reducing the world’s vulnerability to stem, yellow, and leaf rusts of wheat and advocating/facilitating the evolution of a sustainable international system to contain the threat of wheat rusts and continue the enhancements in productivity required to withstand future global threats to wheat.

Nairobi Global Rust Summit, September 2005

With the support and advice of Dr. Borlaug and the Rockefeller Foundation, CIMMYT called for what became known as a Global Rust Summit to be held in Nairobi at a time when stem rust would be abundant in the Njoro nurseries. Seventy-eight participants representing 18 countries and numerous donors assembled for a one day session in Nairobi, with a field visit on the following day.

Communication among the founding organizations led to adoption of a Charter for the BGRI (click here to see the Charter). The Charter calls for an Executive Committee, and a general membership comprised of all organizations wishing to participate.

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