Moustafa Azab

Pushing yield frontiers of cereals and legumes is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in drylands. This paper argues and provides empirical evidence that food loss and wastage constitute a sizeable proportion of the total wheat supply in Egypt. By following the life cycle of food and using standard measurement protocols, we estimated the levels of food loss and wastage along the wheat value chain in Egypt and their socioeconomic, biophysical, and environmental implications. About 4.4 million tons (20.62% of total wheat supply from domestic production and imports in 2017/2018) is estimated to be lost or wasted in Egypt which is also associated with the wastage of about 4.79 billion m³ of water, and 74.72 million GJ of energy. This implies that if Egypt manages to eliminate, or considerably reduce, wheat-related losses and wastage, it will save enough food to feed 21 million more people from domestic production and hence reduce wheat imports by 37%, save 1.1 billion USD of much-needed foreign exchange, and reduce emissions of at least 260.84 million kg carbon dioxide-equivalent and 8.5 million kg of methane. Therefore, investment in reducing food loss and wastage can be an effective strategy to complement ongoing efforts to enhance food security through productivity enhancement in Egypt.

Since the first detection of race TTKSK (Ug99) of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici in Uganda in 1998 (Pretorius et al. 2000), it has been a priority to track its further spread to other wheat growing areas. To date, 10 variants in the Ug99 race group have been detected in 12 countries, i.e., Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Rwanda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Yemen and Iran (Patpour et al. 2015). In the 2014 crop season, the presence of virulence to Sr31 in Egypt was suspected based on preliminary field observations of high infection on sources of Sr31 planted as international stem rust trap nursery at 1) Sakha Agricultural Research Station in Kafrelsheikh (31.094059° N, 30.933899° E), 2) Al-Sharqia (30.601400° N, 31.510383° E), and 3) Nubaria (30.91464° N, 29.95543° E). At Sakha, wheat cv. PBW343 (carrying Sr31) was scored 30MS-S, and the monogenic line Benno Sr31/6*LMPG was scored 20MS-S at Al-Sharqia. Three samples from each of these lines were sent to the Global Rust Referenc...