LALITPUR: National Wheat Crops Research, Bhairahawa, under Nepal Agricultural Research Council has developed disease resistant varieties of wheat.

The council developed the varieties after wheat farming was affected by a fungus named UG 19. The wheat disease first appeared in 1998 in a wheat farm in Uganda and ultimately reached Pakistan.

The disease, which is transferred through air, damaged wheat crop decaying the wheat plants completely.

The research project has developed four varieties of wheat that fight the fungus UG 19.

The developed varieties are BL 3063, NL 1053 for Terai and NL 1073 and NL 1064 for hilly regions.