With confirmation of soybean rust in the United States, funding is needed both this year and in FY-2006, prediction, and management. Congress must immediately urge the Administration to use fir USDA to implement a coordinated framework for rust surveillance, reporting, diagnosis emergency Commodity Credit Corporation authority to fund this coordinated system in 2005, and funds must be provided in FY-2006 appropriations to maintain and, if needed, expand this framework.

ASA also urges Congress to appropriate funds in FY-2006 for critical rust research:

A. Research to locate and determine the function of genes involved in rust resistance. Columbia, MO; Raleigh, NC; Donald Dansforth Plant Science Center. ($600,000)

B. Research to translate genomics information from other legume crops and model legumes to soybeans, including identification of rust resistance genes in common bean (Phaseolus). Total funding needed: $1.5 million

a. Phaseolus research, St. Paul, MN, and Beltsville, MD ($700,000)

b. Phaseolus genetic fingerprinting, USDA-ARS at Wooster, OH ($300,000)

c. CSREES/NRI for competitive research proposals on translational genomics in legume crops ($500,000)

Asian soybean rust was confirmed in the United States in November, 2004, and has been found in nine southern states on soybeans and kudzu. If soybean rust becomes widespread in U.S. soybean production areas, it could cause large crop and economic losses to soybean growers and our associated industries.

A USDA Economic Research Service report in April 2004 estimated net economic losses ranging from $640 million to $1.3 billion in the first year of the pathogen’s establishment in this country, and placed annual losses in the ensuing years between $240 million and $2.0 billion, depending on the severity and extent of subsequent outbreaks.

Working closely with USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency, ASA has helped gain approval for six of seven fungicides submitted through the Section 18 emergency registration process. Two other chemicals already had full registration. Because some fungicides are produced by more than one manufacturer, more than a dozen different fungicides are available for the 2005 growing season.

The long-term solution to soybean rust is development of rust-resistant or rust-tolerant varieties of soybeans. Now that soybean rust has been confirmed in the United States, work with the rust pathogen will be allowed at additional research labs, as well as continuing at the containment facility at Ft. Detrick, Maryland.

ASA was successful in 2004 (FY2005) in securing more than $1 million from Congress for work on resistant varieties of soybeans. It is critical that Congress support additional funding for this research in FY-2006.