Escape from Fusarium head blight begins when the crop is established

The rush to finish sowing winter crops can increase the risk of Fusarium head blight. The research recommends staggering the sowing of winter cereals and investing in cultivars with different cycles to prevent the entire crop from heading at the same time, increasing damage.

Fusarium head blight disease, caused by the fungus Gibberella zeae (Fusarium graminearum), is the main problem affecting the ears of wheat, barley and triticale crops in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and the central-southern region of Paraná. In these regions, the environment has a direct influence on the disease where frequent periods of high air humidity with rainfall on consecutive days and temperatures between 24 and 30ºC, increase the occurrence of an epidemic.

The fungus that causes Fusarium head blight attacks the ears, compromising the yield and quality of the grains. The period of susceptibility of ears is long, from earing to the final stage of grain filling. When the ear is affected in the early stages, the grain is not formed and most of those that form are lost in the harvesting process because they are lighter. In addition to yield, grain with Fusarium head blight may be contaminated with mycotoxins, which compromise human health and cause digestive complications in animals.

Currently, there are no wheat cultivars recommended for planting with a good level of resistance to Fusarium head blight. Crop rotation has also not been shown to be efficient in controlling this disease. The reduction of damage caused lies in the adoption of less susceptible cultivars, associated with the staggering of sowing, diversification of cultivars with different earing cycles and the use of fungicides that must be applied before climatic conditions favorable to the infection of the ears by the pathogen occur.

Find out more in the video “Strategies to escape Fusarium head blight”, with Embrapa Trigo researcher Maria Imaculada Pontes Moreira Lima.