Wheat is an important source of dietary protein and daily calories for majority of the world’s population. Although several pests and diseases affect yield potential and quality, the three rusts and powdery mildew fungi have caused major epidemics in the past and continue to threaten wheat production despite the widespread use of genetic resistance and fungicides. The evolution and migration of more virulent and aggressive race lineages of rust fungi have rendered varieties vulnerable. Fusarium head blight, leaf spotting diseases, root diseases and, more recently, wheat blast (in South America, Bangladesh and more recently Zambia) have become increasingly important owing to narrow options for resistance diversity. Race-specific and quantitative resistance are well studied for most diseases; their selection and deployment as combinations through phenotyping coupled with molecular strategies offer grea