VZCZCXRO4547
OO RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHDK #1008 2161726
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 041726Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2887
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1247
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0405
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0080
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC

UNCLAS DAKAR 001008 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL, INR/AA, IIP/S-AF AMURPHY, AF/PD 
PERHNMAN, AND AF/W 
ECOWAS POSTS FOR PAOS 
PARIS FOR ARS 
USDA FAS WASHDC FOR OSTA/NTPMD NAIM 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID EFIN PINS KDEM SG
SUBJECT:  SENEGAL: PRESIDENT WADE ENDORSES TRANSGENETIC AGRICULTURE, 
INTENDS TO SIGN A TRANSGENETIC CROPPING BILL 
 
¶1. In a Thursday, July 22 meeting with President Wade in his office, 
Charge, IIP speaker Dr. Marcelline Egnin, and APHIS senior attache 
persuaded President Wade to sign a bill on his desk to legalize the 
cultivation of transgenetic crops in Senegal.  Wade displayed a 
considerable knowledge of transgenetic cropping as a part of his 
more general interest in national food self sufficiency.  END 
SUMMARY. 
EMBASSY KNOCKS ON A PRESIDENTIAL DOOR UNEXPECTEDLY OPEN TO BIOTECH 
CROPS 
----------------------------- 
¶2.  The climax to a five day (July 6-10 and 22), Embassy-initiated, 
IIP speaker program for Dr. Marcelline Egnin of Tuskegee University, 
in Dakar to participate in a USDA and Michigan State University 
sponsored symposium on biotechnology and biosafety, was a last 
moment meeting with Senegalese President Wade to persuade him to 
sign the National Assembly's recently passed bill allowing the 
cultivation of transgenetic crops in Senegal.   Attending were 
Charge, APHIS officer, CAO, and Dr. Egnin.   The President, who 
already knows the transgenetic brief quite well, required little 
persuasion. After mentioning that India is interested in planting 
biotech crops in Senegal, he asked Dr. Egnin if there were any 
obstacles to such crops in the US, to which she said no, as long as 
the required rigorous testing precedes the approval.  University of 
Dakar plant researcher Mame Ousmane Sy attempted to stoke the 
President's competitive ambitions to African statesmanship by saying 
that Burkina Faso is already planting biotech crops.  Charge made 
the dish even tastier by saying that that promulgating the law would 
attract foreign investment.  Saying "I am not a professor.  I am the 
manager of a small and medium sized enterprise called Senegal. I 
don't want to experiment.  I want to go to the application phase. . 
. .  I am your man.  I am your partner," Wade said that promulgating 
the law will be automatic. 
COMMENT: SIGNING AND PLANTING 
-------------------- 
 
¶3.   Inasmuch as President Wade sometimes promises action 
impulsively only to retract later on, Embassy will have to monitor 
the movement of this bill from the Presidency into the statute books 
and thereafter activity in the fields that the bill allows. 
Nevertheless, from 9:45 to 10:15 pm on July 22 President Wade moved 
his country at least in words to the forefront of the biggest 
advance in world agriculture since the Sixties Green Revolution. 
SMITH