Alberta farmers are applauding the federal government's decision to help fight a fungus that attacks wheat.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced this week that Canada would spend $13 million trying to stop the Ug99 fungus, also known as black stem rust, which can be devastating to wheat crops.

While the fungus has yet to appear in North America, its spread has led to riots and civil unrest in West and Central Africa.

If the fungus makes its way to this continent, it's estimated it could eliminate as much as 80 per cent of wheat crops.

Henry Vos, a director of the Canadian Wheat Board, said he's glad to see the federal government take action.

"It's an important disease that needs to be looked at and stopped in some way.

"You can liken diseases like this in wheat to things like H1N1 in people, in that they can be very serious and spread, and it can affect our food supply, potentially, in the future."

Vos said a serious reduction in wheat yields would affect supplies of everything from bread to beer.

He said this fungus has the potential to spread quickly.

"I don't know the exact nature of this disease, but funguses quite often spread by spores in the wind and, depending on which way the winds blow and how long and how far, these things can spread quite long distances," Vos said.

The federal funding will be directed at trying to develop a strain of wheat resistant to the Ug99 fungus.