8 December 2025, Ankara – In a region where wheat is critical for daily diets and rural livelihoods, wheat rust diseases have the potential to devastate up to 70 percent of harvests in severe years. To counter this transboundary threat, a strategic regional initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Republic of Türkiye has successfully established a robust defence network, culminating in a closure workshop held on 2 December in Ankara.

The project, “Strengthening regional collaboration and national capacities for management of wheat rust diseases and resistance breeding in Central Asia and Caucasus (CAC-Rust)”, has been implemented under the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programmes (FTPP). The initiative united seven beneficiary countries – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – modernizing their approach to disease surveillance and disease management. Through strengthening surveillance systems, resistance breeding, regional data sharing, capacity building and farmer-level disease management, the CAC-Rust Project has made a critical contribution to safeguarding wheat production and enhancing food security across Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Addressing global challenges and food security

During the opening session of the closure workshop, Ayşegül Selışık, Assistant FAO Representative in Türkiye, contextualized the project in the current global landscape. She highlighted the multi-dimensional challenges facing the world today, as outlined in FAO’s recent State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report. Selışık emphasized that ensuring plant health and resilience to transboundary pests and diseases, such as rusts, is fundamental to fighting hunger and noted that the cooperation fostered under the FTPP has made significant contributions to sustainable food production in the region.

Fatih Özdemir, Deputy Director General of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, focused on the external pressures impacting agriculture. He drew attention to the increased vulnerability caused by pests and diseases and climate change, and the ways in which international crises – such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine – have disrupted global wheat markets. He further noted that the International Winter Wheat Improvement Programme – a collaborative endeavour of TAGEM, CIMMYT (the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) and ICARDA (the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas), based in Türkiye – is playing an important role in developing improved wheat varieties for the region.

Özdemir explained that the technical networks and collaborations for surveillance, knowledge sharing and resistance breeding, established during this project, are critical tools for resilience and stressed that these networks must be sustained beyond the project’s closure.

Leaving a lasting technical legacy

Following the opening session, Fazıl Düşünceli, Lead Technical Officer of the project and Agriculture Officer at FAO, delivered a concise overview of the project’s results and impact, highlighting the importance of surveillance, data sharing and capacity building. He also drew attention to the critical contributions of the Regional Cereal Rust Research Center (RCRRC), which is located in Izmir and operated by ICARDA and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Türkiye. He emphasized that CAC-Rust represents not an endpoint of the collaborations established but a strong foundation for the future cooperation.

Key achievements presented included the establishment of the CAC-Rust regional network, the training of over 400 experts, the preparation of six national wheat rust strategies and contingency plans, and the collection and analysis of more than 200 rust samples across the region.

The session also featured highlights from activities organized by CIMMYT-Türkiye, presented by the breeding specialist Fehmi Kozveren. He underlined the importance of developing specialized training on developing resistant varieties against wheat rust diseases in Izmir and organizing technical visits and on-site trainings at the research institutes in the countries. He concluded that these activities have significantly strengthened national capacities in surveillance, resistance breeding and integrated disease management.

Throughout the day, country representatives shared national-level achievements, best practices and lessons learned under the project. A dedicated discussion session also took place on future cooperation opportunities with the participation of FAO, the Ministry, international research partners and beneficiary countries.

Finally, the closing workshop reaffirmed a shared commitment to sustaining and expanding the regional partnership built under the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programmes. Gökhan Kızılcı, Head of Plant Health Research Department of TAGEM, then closed the workshop thanking all the participating countries and participants and highlighting the contributions of Türkiye in sustaining these collaborations.

About the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programmes

The objectives of the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programmes are to provide support to ensure food security, rural poverty reduction and sustainable forest management; combat desertification; and preserve ecosystems in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and other countries of mutual interest.

Established in 2007, the first phase of the FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP) has benefited from trust fund contributions totalling USD 10 million, financed by the Government of Türkiye and represented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. During the first phase of the programme, 28 projects were implemented in 16 countries between 2009 and 2015.

In 2014, Türkiye and FAO commenced the second phase of the FTPP along with the first phase of the FAO-Türkiye Forestry Partnership Programme (FTFP) with additional funding of USD 20 million, bringing Türkiye’s total contribution to USD 30 million.

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