Asian soybean rust breakthrough to boost food security

Researchers have found a way to avert a fatal soybean plant disease that afflicts Latin American exports to China and undercuts Beijing’s drive for food security.

The team, led by a group of researchers with the Oil Crops Research Institute within the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, had cloned a specific gene that was resistant to Asian soybean rust, according to a paper in Nature Communications – a peer-reviewed journal under the Nature Portfolio.

Asian soybean rust – a fungal infection which shows up as brownish or grey spots on a plant’s lower leaves – is also ubiquitous in Latin America, with the severe disease found in all major soybean producing regions. Chemical control was the only method so far found to control the disease because of limited resistant soybean germplasm, or genetic resources, the paper said.

The new solution to Asian soybean rust, which is caused by phakopsora pachyrhizi, would ensure China had access to more of the key ingredient used for oil, protein and livestock feed.

China is the world’s largest soybean importer, making up 60 per cent of global trade, with Brazil and the United States its major suppliers.

Latin America supplied most of China’s imported soybeans, but its crop lost US$2 billion per year to rust disease, said Alberto Vettoretti, a managing partner at business management consultancy firm Dezan Shira and Associates.

Beijing has increased food security efforts and tech selfreliance amid climate change and geopolitical uncertainty that have the potential to impact trade and disrupt the global market.

“If science and technology can help ensure the safety of the crop, then it’s useful,” said Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin University in Beijing.

“Soybeans are very important for China. They’re good for agricultural security.”

China’s soybean imports grew by more than 11 per cent last year to 99.41 million tonnes compared to 2022, customs data showed.

Severe outbreaks of Asian soybean rust can override fungicide treatment and completely defoliate soybean plants within two weeks, according to the Ohio State University Extension in the US.

Gene cloning as a solution to rust disease marked “a breakthrough from zero to one”, the Oil Crops Research Institute said.

The scientists had spent 30 years examining soybean rust disease, the institute added.

“The broad-spectrum, durable soybean rust resistance gene was cloned from soybeans for the first time in the world, providing valuable genetic resources for soybean rust resistance breeding,” it said.