Capital FM Kenya: Ancient wheat plague threatens world crops anew

Capital FM Kenya: Ancient wheat plague threatens world crops anew: "The disease is now widespread in eastern Africa and threatens to move deep into the Middle East and Asia, where it could devastate farms, cause rising bread prices and unleash political and economic unrest, experts say.

Already, the strain has shown up in Iran and in Yemen, Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland which has plunged into political turmoil in the past five months amid deadly fighting over the future of the country.

Rising food prices have also been a factor in a series of uprisings across the Arab world, Mexico, Haiti and beyond.
'Yemen is a big problem,' said Coffman, who as Borlaug's one-time doctoral student is now carrying on his mentor's lifelong mission to spread strong crops around the world and provide steady food sources to the poor. Borlaug died in 2009.

Whipping winds can transport spores as many as 100 miles (160 kilometers) per day, raising concerns among scientists about where the epidemic could turn up next.

'From Yemen, the wind currents are such that it could be carried to almost any part of the world -- winds blow into south Asia, they blow into central Asia, they blow into Europe even,' Coffman told AFP."