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Rust diseases remain a serious threat to food crops in South Africa

07 August 2025 | Story Martinette Brits | Photo Stephen Collett

Prof Willem Boshoff shares insights from decades of rust disease research during his inaugural lecture at the University of the Free State.

Rust diseases of food crops remain one of agriculture’s most enduring and evolving challenges. In his inaugural lecture on 23 July 2025 at the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof Willem Boshoff shared how these complex pathogens continue to pose a significant threat to South Africa’s staple crops – and why continued research is more critical than ever.

Titled Battling rust diseases of food crops in South Africa, the lecture reflected on decades of rust research and recent developments in pathogen virulence. Prof Boshoff, from the Department of Plant Sciences, emphasised that the threat posed by rust fungi today stems from their “mechanisms of variability, their ease of long-distance spore dispersal, and subsequent foreign race incursions”.

A shifting disease landscape

Rust fungi are biotrophic organisms that cannot be cultured on artificial growth media. This makes rust research a technically demanding field that requires living pathogen collections, seed sources, skilled researchers, and specialised infrastructure. Prof Boshoff noted that for more than 35 years, the UFS has been at the forefront of this work, monitoring rust pathogens on wheat, barley, oats, maize, and sunflower.

While wheat remains the most extensively studied type, recent rust outbreaks across a range of crops point to a worrying trend. A localised outbreak of stem rust on spring wheat in the Western Cape has been linked to race BFGSF, which carries a previously unknown combination of virulence genes affecting both wheat and triticale. In 2021, leaf rust race CNPSK was detected, showing virulence to the highly effective Lr9 resistance gene.

More recently, stripe rust race 142E30A+ – first reported in Zimbabwe – was found in wheat cultivars from the Free State and northern irrigation areas. “Results revealed increased susceptibility of especially spring irrigation wheat cultivars,” Prof Boshoff explained, particularly due to its virulence to the Yr9 and Yr27 resistance genes.

Rust pathogens affecting other crops are also evolving. In maize, only a few lines with mostly stacked resistance gene combinations were effective against all tested isolates. In sunflower, just four of 30 Agricultural Research Council national trial hybrids showed resistance to local rust races.

Building better resistance

A key strategy in rust control lies in identifying and understanding resistance in host plants. This, Prof Boshoff stressed, requires optimised phenotyping systems for both greenhouse and field conditions, along with a solid understanding of available resistance sources. At the UFS, several recent studies have contributed valuable data to both local and international plant breeding programmes.

“Continued local and regional rust research is critical,” he said. “It supports early detection of new races, alerts to producers through updated cultivar responses, and enables efficient breeding strategies and other sustainable methods of rust management.”

The rust programme at the UFS has not only supported varietal release and on-farm risk management, but also strengthened collaboration between plant scientists, industry partners, and international researchers. With South Africa’s strategic location and history of rust surveillance, the programme continues to play a pivotal role in continental and global food security efforts.

About Prof Willem Boshoff

Prof Willem Boshoff is a plant pathologist with a strong background in wheat breeding and rust disease control. He holds four degrees from the University of the Free State, all awarded cum laude: a BScAgric (1994), BScAgric Honours (1995), MScAgric (1997), and PhDAgric (2001). His doctoral research focused on the control of foliar rusts in wheat.

Between 2001 and 2016, he worked as a wheat breeder and contributed to the release of several commercial cultivars. He joined the UFS Department of Plant Sciences in 2017 and has since been actively involved in national and international research projects, capacity development, and advancing disease resistance in food crops.

News Archive

Another boost for sport at the UFS

2005-10-13

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has officially appointed Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd, which has former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis as managing director, to manage its Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Services (CESSS) on the Bloemfontein campus.

According to Prof Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector: Academic Operations, the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is another step in the implementation of the UFS’s wide-ranging sport strategy to improve sport facilities and elevate formerly marginalized sports such as soccer, hockey, netball, tennis etc.

Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is the manager of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and coordinates and manages the national basketball high-performance programme of SA Basketball, as well as the Boxing Academy on behalf of Boxing South Africa.

“It is also actively involved with the sports plans of several tertiary institutions like that of the University of Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch,” said Prof Verschoor.

“Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was also appointed by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to manage the allocation of sports codes to high-performance centres and to oversee the allocation of monies received from the National Lottery to these centres – this includes the CESSS at the UFS,” Prof Verschoor added.

In unfolding its national sports plan, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has already identified the UFS-based CESSS as the high-performance testing centre for the national basketball teams whilst the national boxing teams are also earmarked to be trained at the UFS.

“We are glad to be associated with a company of this stature and look forward to work with them in the further development of sports at the UFS,” said Prof Verschoor.

According to Prof Verschoor, the CESSS will act as a centralised body that is responsible for the coordination and management of joint initiatives between professional service providers, research projects and KovsieSport.

“The centre will also coordinate and manage joint initiatives between various academic programmes in different academic subject fields such as sports medicine, bio kinetics, physiotherapy, dietetics, etc. ,” said Prof Verschoor.

These initiatives will help the UFS to become a centre and catalyst of sports development, to become internationally recognised in the field of exercise and sports science research and to become a centre for high quality sports performance enhancement.

Some of the objectives of the CESSS are:

To provide sports science services like to athletes, students, the general public and other stakeholders including certain national sport teams.
To provide the necessary teaching and training facilities and internship opportunities for UFS students in sports related fields of study will also be provided by the centre like human movement science.
To present skills-transfer programmes directed at the broader community like development of skills in various sporting codes.
To continue and extend the current chronic risk reversal programmes presented by the Department of Human Movement Science such as obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation and other lifestyle related conditions.

The centre was founded in 2003 and was until now managed by Dr Louis Holtzhausen, from Kovsie Health and a consultant, Dr Gary Vorster.

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed today by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The manager of the centre appointed by Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is Mr Charles Store, an alumnus of the UFS, previously employed at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town and by the SANDF at 3 Military Hospital, Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
072-207-8334
12 October 2005

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