Countering rapidly evolving pathogen threats to ensure sustainable wheat production requires a multifaceted approach. Advanced pathogen monitoring, pathogen-informed pre-breeding, improved varieties, and a coordinated community of experts are all essential elements of a cohesive global strategy. Since 2005, an international coalition of scientists, research institutions, and donors has invested in developing and applying knowledge, technologies, products, and tools to mitigate the risk of wheat rust diseases at the local, regional, and global levels.

Initially formed as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative in response to the threat of Ug99, this coalition has evolved into formal and informal collaborations worldwide, focusing on multiple wheat diseases and abiotic stresses threatening wheat production. Over the years, localized epidemics have highlighted the challenges of preventing pathogen movement, the evolution of new pathogen virulences, the deployment of resistance genes, developing durable disease resistance, and replacing wheat varieties.

Despite those challenges, our community has made remarkable strides toward reducing the global risk of wheat rust epidemics. The strategic development and deployment of improved wheat varieties with multiple rust resistance genes have demonstrated the positive impact of long-term, global collaborations. Long-term investments in rust pathogen surveillance, modeling, and diagnostics have established one of the largest operational global monitoring and early warning systems for any crop.

Efforts to create a scalable, integrated, and sustainable network to monitor emerging and migrating wheat diseases at a global scale are creating novel pathways for local action to mitigate risk. However, we must not be complacent.

As we look to the future in addressing pressing wheat production threats, it is paramount to continue fostering purposeful, interdisciplinary, and inclusive global collaborations.