NEWS
AGRICULTURE Yellow rust threat A. NAIR
A virulent strain of fungus that causes yellow rust in wheat is sweeping across the Indian fields of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The main bread wheat cultivar, HD267, which currently occupies 10 to 12m ha appears to be susceptible to this new strain.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Counterfeiting allegations
A. NAIR
A US report alleges that India is among the top five provenance economies for counterfeit goods, a claim flatly denied by the Indian government, which claims it is an attack on affordable generic drugs. The US latest annual Special
301 Report, on intellectual property protection and review of notorious markets for piracy and counterfeiting, was released on 25 April 2019 – with the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) blaming India for its growing problem with counterfeit medicines. The USTR report says almost 20% of all pharmaceutical goods sold in the Indian market are counterfeit and could represent a serious threat to patient health and safety. It adds that China and India are leading sources of counterfeit medicines distributed globally. While the report blames India
for jeopardising the health and safety of its own population, it also ranks India among top producers for exporting counterfeit medicines to Africa, Canada, the Caribbean, the EU, South America and the US. The office of the Drug Controller
General of India as well as officials at the Health Ministry said the Indian government has issued a rebuttal seeking details. ‘We would like to understand what is the basis of the report, where are the concrete data that have helped them arrive at this conclusion,’ said an official. India is the world’s third-largest drug producer by volume and its
pharmaceutical market is expected to grow to $55bn by 2020. Over 55% of India’s drug exports go to highly regulated markets, with the US alone constituting about 30% of Indian pharma exports. Moreover, the USTR report is
in sharp contrast to the Indian government’s own report of 2016 that found only 3% drugs not of standard quality and 0.0245% spurious drugs. The government survey conducted by the Health Ministry included drugs from all therapeutic categories and included data from more than 47,000 drug samples from across the country. S. Eswara Reddy, drug controller
general of India (DCGI), said the claim made by USTR tarnishes the image of India, which is one of the leading global producers of low cost generic medicines. He added that it was important to get documentary evidence to support the claim. Not-for-profit organisation
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) released a statement defending India’s stance. Stating that two- thirds of the medicines used to treat people with HIV, tuberculosis and malaria are generics produced in India, MSF said India’s patent and drug regulatory policies have helped protect price-lowering generic competition. The US government has retained India on the ‘priority watch list’ for its alleged poor enforcement of IP regulations even as it acknowledged steps taken by the Indian government to promote IP protection.
Scientists from the Indian Council
of Agricultural Research and the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research at Shimla and Karnal have identified three new extremely virulent strains of this fungus, capable of causing severe yield loss. The news comes after the crop year
March 2018 to March 2019 was declared yellow rust free, with only a few outbreaks reported in Punjab, Haryana and Jammu. The affected fields were sprayed with propiconazole fungicide, tebuconazole and triadimefon. Yellow rust is a fungal disease caused
by Puccinia fungus, which manifests as powdery yellow stripes on leaves. These stripes hinder photosynthesis, make the grains shrivel and stunt plant growth. Infection can cause up to 70% decline in wheat yields.
All the wheat growing states like Punjab,
Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, the tarai region of Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh and the low-lying areas of Jammu and Kashmir are susceptible to the disease. In 2011, farms spread over ca 300,000 ha were hit by the disease. However, in an advisory, the Crop Protection Programme at ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research notes that the disease spread would likely stop in states in the North Western Plains Zone. ‘Keeping in view the presence of wheat blast in neighbouring districts of Bangladesh close to West Bengal, we have advised strict watch on wheat crops for the presence of wheat blast-like disease,’ said an ICAR spokesperson. Farmers have been advised to spray a mix of tebuconazole and trifloxystrobin to avoid infection. ‘Puccinia graminis causes stem rust,
Puccinia recondita causes leaf rust, and Puccinia striiformis causes stripe rust. Wheat cultivars have been using a part of the rye chromosome, which confers resistance to yellow rust,’ said the ICAR spokesperson, adding that ICAR has identified five new strains of Puccinia striiformis. First detected in India during 2013-2014,
three of these strains – 110S119, 238S119 and 110S84 – are reportedly growing in numbers.
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