Now yellow rust attacks wheat crop in Punjab

After attacking wheat in Haryana, yellow rust -- a fungal disease has now appeared in Punjab with detection of two such cases.
In its latest survey, farm scientists of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) found disease attacking crop in Dabkhera Upparala (Ajoli) in Anandpur Sahib block of Ropar district. Another detection of yellow rust was made at Bara Bajwara on Hoshiarpur-Una road, said a PAU release.
The survey teams of PAU visited disease prone sub- mountainous areas of Ropar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Hoshiarpur on January 6.
Karnal-based Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR) had found high intensity attack of yellow rust disease in Yamunanagar district of Haryana.

Last year, yellow rust spread over 1,000 hecatres of land in Yamunanagar, causing extensive damage to winter crop.
Yellow rust is a fungal disease which turns crop's leaves into yellowish colour and stops the photosynthesis activity.

The disease appears as yellow coloured, powdery linear stripes on the leaves. When touched with fingers the yellow coloured spore mass sticks to the fingers, which is a conspicuous criteria for disease identification, it said.
Yellow rust is a dreaded disease of wheat which can cause tremendous losses in yield, if not checked in time, it said.
PAU advised wheat growers to be proactive and monitor their fields regularly to look for symptoms of disease.

Notably, farmers in sub-mountainous districts of Punjab are advised to be extra careful in monitoring their wheat fields for detection of yellow rust and take timely control measures in order to check the spread of disease to other areas, it said.
Farm experts have also said that current weather conditions are congenial for spreading of the disease and it has the potential to spread from unrecommended varieties to even recommended varieties of wheat which could have adverse impact on overall yield.