By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

A soybean disease that has caused major problems for farmers
worldwide is now in Georgia. And it’s probably here to stay.
Georgia farmers will have to learn to deal with it, says a
University of Georgia expert.

Asiatic soybean rust was positively identified in Georgia today,
said Bob Kemerait, a plant pathologist with the UGA Extension
Service. The first case of the disease in the continental United
States was in Louisiana and announced on Nov. 10. It has since
been identified in Mississippi and Florida, too.

The disease attacks a plant and defoliates it, killing the plant
or severely reducing yields.

It’s an aggressive disease that infects and produces spores
quickly. “If it spreads, it could affect a large portion of the
soybean crop in the United States,” he said.

Georgia’s 2004 soybean crop is too far along in growth for the
disease to cause much damage this year, Kemerait said. Georgia
farmers planted about 250,000 acres of soybeans this year, about
60,000 acres more than last year.

The confirmation came from a sample in Seminole County taken by
UGA Extension Service agent Rome Ethredge, Kemerait said. But it
is believed to be widespread across the state.

Tropical delivery

It’s likely that Hurricane Ivan, which skimmed the coasts of
South America around Sept. 13, picked up the disease and
delivered it to the Gulf Coast states. The resulting wet, windy
weather from other tropical storms allowed the rust to spread.

The leaves of a plant infected with the disease will appear
dried and dead. But soybean plants across the state have looked
this way for sometime now because of natural defoliation this
time of year.

That’s why the disease wasn’t identified earlier, he said. After
the confirmation in Louisiana, UGA Extension Service agents and
other agricultural officials began surveying Georgia soybean
fields for the disease.

Costly disease

Asiatic soybean rust has hurt soybean production in Asia,
Australia and Africa. By 2000, it was in South America. It cost
Brazilian farmers an estimated $1 billion in damage and control
measures in 2003.

Asiatic soybean rust doesn’t hurt humans or affect other major
Georgia row crops, such as peanuts and cotton. But it does
affect Southern peas, pole, lima and snap beans, which are grown
in Georgia. It also attacks and defoliates kudzu, one of
Georgia’s most infamous invasive plants.

No soybean varieties are resistant to this rust, Kemerait said.
But fungicides can control it. Soybeans are a higher-value crop
in the Midwest, so farmers there protect them with fungicides.

Georgia growers usually don’t spray fungicides on soybeans. But
this will likely have to change, he said.

“There’s no doubt we can handle Asiatic soybean rust in
America,” Kemerait said. “The concern is how much additional
production cost will it take.”

Asiatic soybean rust is a tropical disease. Freezing
temperatures kill it. It could spread in the United States
during the summer, but it will have to fall back during winter
to places that don’t freeze, such as south Florida and Texas.

Now that it’s in the United States, though, it will stay. “We
won’t eradicate this disease,” Kemerait said. “We’ll just have
to contain and control it.”

Response plan

Kemerait, UGA plant pathology department head John Sherwood and
Extension Service soybean agronomist Phil Jost are working with
the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service and the Georgia Department of Agriculture to
form a first-response plan for Georgia agricultural crops.

UGA Extension Service county agents are training to identify and
respond to this and other diseases.

Soybeans are sometimes boiled with salt like Deep-South peanuts
in Japan and other places. But in most of the United States, the
high-proteins are used mostly in highly processed forms.

Textured vegetable protein, soy lecithin and vegetable oil from
soybeans are key ingredients in meatless burgers, milk and
cheeses, infant formulas, chocolate candies and countless other
foods.

Soybeans are used to make nonfood products, too, such as soap,
cosmetics, resins, plastics, inks, crayons, solvents and
biodiesel fuel.