OSLO (Reuters) - Wheat experts are stepping up monitoring of a crop disease first found in Africa in 1999 to minimize the spread of a deadly fungus that is also a threat in Asia, experts said on Friday.
A "Rust-Tracker", using data supplied by farmers and scientists, could now monitor the fungus in 27 developing nations across 42 million hectares (103 million acres) of wheat - an area the size of Iraq or California.