Fighting Wheat Rust in Kenya - Gene Stewardship and the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative

In 2015 the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative awarded the wheat team from the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization the prestigious Gene Stewardship Award for making significant contributions to fighting rust diseases of wheat. The work done in Kenya through collaborations between the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center are critical to the development and adoption of rust resistant wheat varieties globally. Since 2008 hundreds of thousands of candidate wheat lines from 25 countries have been tested for disease resistance in Kenya, ensuring that the worlds wheat crop is resistant to UG99 and its derivative stem rust races, as well as yellow and leaf rust.