KARNAL BUNT: why it is in recent news?

Karnal bunt (partial bunt) is a fungal disease of wheat, durum wheat, and triticale. The smut fungus Tilletia indica invades the kernels and obtains its nutrition from the endosperm, leaving behind waste products with a disagreeable odour that makes bunted kernels too unpalatable for use in flour.

Iran relents on Indian wheat import (October,29,2012) :it has not been importing wheat from India since 1996 due to presence of a fungal disease called 'karnal bunt' in the grain. However, two nations are in talks for last couple of months to sort out the quality issues.

India had offered the Iranian officials wheat shipment at USD 340 a tonne, loading from Kandla and Mundra ports and the karnal bunt tolerance limit of 0.25 percent.

On the other side, Iran initially wants to buy two lakh tonnes of wheat a price of USD 325 a tonne during December -January period. It has also evinced interest to import 2-3 million tonnes of the grain on long-term basis.

There is one provision under WTO which they can apply here is the SPS AGREEMENT (SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES).