Abstract

Wheat is the major staple food of India and is the leading source of vegetal protein in human food, having a protein content of about 13%. India was the second largest wheat producing country in the world after China with production level of 95.85 m during the year 2014. India's share in global wheat production was recorded at 11.78% in the year 2015–16. The production can further be enhanced from the current levels by minimizing the yield losses owing to diseases. In recent years, stripe rust has emerged as a major threat to wheat crop due to emergence of new pathogen variants. Stripe rust also known as yellow rust of wheat is caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, which is one of the most important diseases of wheat worldwide as well as amongst the most studied of the plant diseases. This review describes its spread, identification and management in wheat crop. In the recent years, new races of stripe rust have been emerged and its incidence has increased to such an extent that many high yielding varieties which were found to be susceptible to yellow rust have been replaced by new resistant varieties. Although stripe rust has mainly been endemic only in cool climate regions but lately it has also spread to areas previously unaffected. Efforts have been carried out worldwide to minimize the losses and to develop new varieties that can confer resistance to yellow rust.