Advances like these suggest the march of wheat rust can be halted, though at a cost.

ECONOMIST: Wheat rust and world farming

Wheat rust is not just back after a 50-year absence, but spreading in new and scary forms.

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Wheat rust has spread silently and speedily by 5, 000 miles in a decade.

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So far, wheat rust has not caused the disaster that scientists fear.

ECONOMIST: Wheat rust and world farming

Now, the vast majority have no experience of wheat rust.

ECONOMIST: Wheat rust and world farming

The astonishing spread of wheat rust makes quick containment impossible.

ECONOMIST: Wheat rust and world farming

Wheat Stem Rust is a devastating wind-born disease affecting cereals that has spread across Africa and is now in the Middle East, and migrating further eastwards.

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So Mr Borlaug first bred wheat cultivars for rust-resistance, a ten-year task, and then crossed them with Norin, a dwarf Japanese variety, to produce a shorter, straighter, stronger wheat which, when properly charged with water and fertiliser, gave three times the yield.

ECONOMIST: Norman Borlaug

Separately, researchers have cracked the mystery of how stripe rust is able to overcome resistance in wheat so quickly.

ECONOMIST: Wheat rust and world farming