The United Nations' agriculture agency has asked Pakistan and other major wheat-producing countries east of Iran to be on high alert following the detection in Iran of a dangerous new fungus that could destroy entire wheat fields. The wheat stem rust, whose spores are carried by wind across continents, was previously found in East Africa and Yemen and has moved to Iran, which said that laboratory tests have confirmed its presence in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in the country's west, according to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Up to 80 per cent of all Asian and African wheat varieties are susceptible to the fungus, and major wheat-producing nations to Iran's east, such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan should be on high alert.
