TANZANIA'S ARMYWORM INFESTATION: AMBASSADOR URGES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DAR ES SALAAM 000396

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL EAID EAGR ECON ETRD TZ
SUBJECT: TANZANIA'S ARMYWORM INFESTATION: AMBASSADOR URGES
MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE TO TAKE SWIFT ACTION TO PREVENT
SPREAD

REF: DAR ES SALAAM 00337

SUMMARY
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1. (U) Ambassador Retzer and USAID Director, Pamela White,
met with the newly appointed Minister for Agriculture, Food
Security and Cooperatives, Joseph J. Mungai, to congratulate
him on his appointment as Minister and assure him that the
USG continues to support agricultural activities in Tanzania.
The Ambassador stressed the serious threat posed by the
African armyworm and the need for a proactive response by the
Tanzanian Government. Mungai expressed his gratitude to the
USG for the USD 50,000 to procure sprayers, protective wear
and other equipment to fight the pest (reftel) and identified
a point of contact within the Ministry of Agriculture's Plant
Health Services Department to ensure proper distribution and
use of the USG-funded equipment. In addition, Mungai
identified key longer-term priorities for the Ministry of
Agriculture including support for irrigation, fertilizer
production, and improved seed production. END SUMMARY.

ARMYWORM: AMBASSADOR STRESSED NEED FOR RAPID RESPONSE
-------------- --------------


2. (U) The Ambassador expressed the USG's concern over
Tanzania's armyworm outbreak and urged Mungai to "handle the
problem today." The Ambassador told Mungai that without a
swift response, next year's food supply could be totally
devastated. The armyworm has already hit Southern Tanzania,
destroying over 60,000 hectares of cereal crops during the
month of February. The Ambassador noted that the USG would
encourage other donors to also provide assistance to address
the problem and that both the Ministry of Agriculture and the
USG had a job to do educating the Tanzanian people and donors
about the danger of armyworm. White added that the concern
was not only for Tanzania: while the armyworm outbreak has
already hit Southern Tanzania, evidence suggests that the
pest is moving North and could affect neighboring countries.


3. (U) On behalf of the Government of Tanzania (GOT),Mungai
thanked the Ambassador and White for the rapid USG support of
USD 50,000 in equipment to address the armyworm outbreak.
Mungai called the armyworm a "serious emergency," and said
that, coupled with the ongoing drought, the pest posed a
grave threat to next year's crop. Mungai gave assurances
that the rapid-response equipment provided by the USG would
be properly utilized adding that, "he hoped this was just the
beginning." Mungai estimated that Tanzania's total need to
combat the armyworm was approximately USD 800,000. (Note:
USAID Director White believes it will be double that amount.
End note.)


4. (U) The Ambassador and White emphasized the need for the
Ministry of Agriculture to identify a point of contact (POC)
to receive the USG equipment and ensure proper distribution
and usage. William Mwaiko, the Principal Agricultural
Officer in the Plant Health Services Department, identified
Yusuf Nyakunga, Assistant Director of the Plant Health
Services Department, as the immediate POC (Telephone:
255-787-309565) for the USG-funded equipment. Mungai also

DAR ES SAL 00000396 002 OF 003


noted that his Ministry had teams in the South and in
Morogoro monitoring the armyworm situation on a daily basis.
He identified Gasper Malia as the POC for monitoring in
Tanzania's Southern regions.

MUNGAI'S PRIORITY AREAS: IRRIGATION, FERTILIZER, AND SEEDS
-------------- --------------


5. (U) In addition to discussing the armyworm threat, Mungai
highlighted several priority areas of support which the
Ministry of Agriculture is pursuing. First, the Minister
emphasized that increased support for irrigation was
critical. Currently, Tanzania has sufficient irrigation for
only 250,000 hectares. The Ministry of Agriculture's goal is
to increase irrigated land to one million hectares by 2010.
Mungai noted that Tanzania had approximately 43 million
hectares of arable land but that only 9 million hectares were
currently under cultivation. He identified Kigoma, in
Northwest Tanzania, as a "sleeping giant" for agricultural
production.


6. (U) In line with President Kikwete's demand for increased
"chemicalization" of Tanzania's farming, Mungai noted that
the Ministry of Agriculture would welcome support for
fertilizer production. "Tanzania needs to advance its use of
chemicals to increase productivity and move toward commercial
farming," the Minister told the Ambassador. In Mungai's
view, Tanzania's fertilizer law, passed in 1962, is extremely
out of date. He explained that the legislation on fertilizer
had been under the Ministry of Livestock, but would now come
under the Ministry of Agriculture and would be revised.


7. (U) Increasing both the production and quality of seeds
was another key area which Mungai highlighted. For coffee in
particular, Mungai noted that research was required to pursue
a technique known as "tissue culture" to multiply coffee seed
and increase the seed's resistance to bacterial diseases.
With intervention, he believed it would be possible to
increase Tanzania's current coffee yield of 50,000 metric
tons per year to 70,000 metric tons per year. White asked
the Minister about the GOT's position on genetically modified
seeds; Mungai responded that the GOT did not have a firm
position on biotechnology, but was in the beginning stages of
drafting legislation on the issue.


8. (SBU) Another notable development Mungai mentioned was the
potential revival of pyrethrum in Tanzania, a cash crop which
is used in the production of insecticides and other
chemicals. Although Tanzania's pyrethrum production
collapsed many years ago, Mungai informed the Ambassador and
White that a U.S. company from Minneapolis, McLaughlin
Gormley King Company (MGK),recently acquired a pyrethrum
facility in the Iringa region (central Tanzania). The
Minister emphasized pyrethrum's promise as a cash crop and
told the Ambassador and White, "I love pyrethrum!" Mungai
also applauded USG artemisia interventions and asked that
they be expanded.

COMMENT
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DAR ES SAL 00000396 003 OF 003




9. (SBU) While Minister Mungai appeared fully apprised of the
armyworm problem and termed the situation an "emergency,"
neither Mungai nor his Principal Agricultural Officer,
William Mwaiko, were aware of the following day's (February
28) meeting called by the Tanzanian office of the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other donors to discuss
Tanzania's food shortage and armyworm infestation. White
urged the Ministry of Agriculture to play an active role in
the meeting and to provide a visual presentation, mapping out
the armyworm problem, so that donors could precisely see the
extent of the destruction. The Ambassador stressed that
while famines and drought are widely understood by the donor
community and the Tanzanian people, the devastation which the
armyworm could cause is under-reported and not
well-understood.


10. (SBU) Although appointed on January 4 by President
Kikwete, Mungai is currently serving in his second go-round
as the Minister of Agriculture. More than 25 years ago,
Tanzania's first President, Julius Nyerere, appointed Joseph
Mungai as Minister of Agriculture during the days of radical
socialism. Mungai noted the drastically different approaches
to the agriculture sector in Nyerere's day as compared to
President Kikwete: Nyerere was promoting the mobilization of
village land schemes under socialism while Kikwete is now
trying to lead Tanzania toward more large-scale, commercial
farming. Despite changed times and ideologies, Mungai seems
to have come full circle in his career: he is back at the
Ministry of Agriculture, facing huge challenges such as food
shortages and armyworm, and still searching for how to
unleash Tanzania's latent agricultural potential.
RETZER