World Grain - July 2013 - 15

A ﬂour art museum story | No. 5

newsreview
FAO: Wheat rust needs control in wet regions
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S. — Many
farmers in the U.S. have sprayed their wheat
crops with fungicide to help protect their
stands from diseases such as rust that may
thrive during wet years, but producers in less
developed parts of the world are being urged
to step up their vigilance.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO) warned that wheat
yields in North Africa, the Middle East, West
and South Asia, where 30% of global wheat
output is concentrated, may be negatively
affected by wheat rusts during the currently
wetter-than-average growing season.
“The favorable growing conditions for
wheat are also good for the rust diseases
that affect wheat, so when there is good precipitation for wheat, that is also when wheat
rusts will be able to best thrive and proliferate,” said Fazil Dusunceli, a specialist in
wheat rusts in the FAO’s plant production
and protection division.
The most recent Weekly Weather and
Crop Bulletin from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture highlighted the occurrence of
notable precipitation in the Middle East and
monsoon conditions in Central India and
other parts of South Asia.
Dusunceli added that prevention in the
form of rust-resistant cultivars was the best
approach because fungicide sprays may mitigate the disease effects, but only if they are
caught early.
He said monitoring and surveillance needed to be increased especially in eastern African countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya,
where favorable rains likely have increased

the presence of rust diseases, which may
wipe out an entire crop if they attack in early
stages of the growing season.
Reports of potentially serious outbreaks of
yellow rust have been made in Central and
West Asia and North Africa.
“Cool and wet conditions have persisted
in many countries from Morocco to Bhutan,” said the International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center and the International
Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry
Areas, both FAO partners.
Yellow (stripe) rust has been reported on
susceptible varieties in parts of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Iraq, Morocco,
Pakistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Unlike
in 2010, a widespread epidemic has been
avoided because of the introduction of resistant cultivars, chemical control and warming
weather, the FAO said.
Despite these factors, monitoring for rusts
in some countries is typically weak and reporting times are slow. In an effort to cut reporting
times, the FAO recently launched a pilot mobile phone surveillance system in Turkey.
“The information is now instantaneous,”
Dusunceli said, “and it is now funneled directly into a database housed in the Agriculture Ministry.”
Wheat rusts manifest as yellow, blackish
or brown colored blisters on whet leaves and
stems, containing millions of spores. These
spores infect the plant tissues and hinder
photosynthesis.
Over time, wheat rusts may evolve into
new strains that are more virulent and damaging to wheat crops, the FAO said.

InVivo CEO to resign
PARIS, FRANCE — Patrice Gollier, chief
executive officer of Union InVivo, France’s
largest agricultural cooperative, will resign
from his job effective July 1 due to family
health concerns.
Gollier, 62, is quitting because his wife
has a “serious health problem,” the Parisbased company said in a statement issued
on June 3. Deputy CEO Jerome Duchalais
will replace him temporarily and InVivo will
name a new CEO “who knows our universe
well” on June 27, the company said.
“The work already started to ensure his
succession has been accelerated,” said InVivo, the country’s biggest shipper of wheat.
The company said Gollier will remain in
close contact with the elected members and
executive committee for as long as is neceswww.World-Grain.com / World Grain / July 2013

sary to ensure a seamless transition.
“We would like to thank Patrice Gollier
for the magnitude of the work accomplished
with his teams during his six years as chief
executive officer and, more generally speaking, during his 32 years at the Group,” the
company said. “He has made a considerable
contribution, with the board of directors, to
the deep-seated changes that had to be made
at the group, redefining the relationship between the Union and its members, clarifying
strategy and putting an efficient organization
system in place.”
Gollier is chairman of the supervisory
board of Hamburg, Germany-based grain
trader Alfred C. Toepfer International GmbH,
which is 20% owned by InVivo with the remainder held by Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Nicolaes van Bambeeck

Rembrandt’s
Master Blend
Contrasting light and dark, compositions that develop layer by layer,
an idiosyncratic scratching technique
- Rembrandt was always one to experiment. This great Baroque painter
also knew no taboos when it came to
mixing paint. His recipe was as refreshingly diﬀerent as his compositions. Oil, a
little lead, and as we now know, wheat
ﬂour. This surprising discovery was
made by chemist Jana Sanyova, who
investigates the secrets of the great
masters at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels. Rembrandt’s
portrait of Nicolaes van Bambeeck and
his wife reveals his amazing repurposing of ﬂour. Why he did it remains
a mystery. Some say he was trying to
achieve special eﬀects through unusual
paint blends. More skeptical minds
think it was the notoriously precarious
state of his ﬁnances that motivated
him to look for low cost alternatives.
Whatever the reason, no one questions
the power of Rembrandt’s innovations.
www.ﬂour-art-museum.de
www.muehlenchemie.de
For more information, see Page 106.

http://www.flour-art-museum.de http://www.muehlenchemie.de http://www.World-Grain.com

World Grain - July 2013

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