VZCZCXRO2470
PP RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR
DE RUEHDR #0396/01 0600410
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 010410Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM
TO RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3508
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PRIORITY
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA PRIORITY 2973
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS PRIORITY 1331
RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA PRIORITY 2347
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA PRIORITY 2705
RUEHLGB/AMEMBASSY KIGALI PRIORITY 0776
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0219
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 9937
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0129
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 0234
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHDR/USDAO DAR ES SALAAM TZ PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0364

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DAR ES SALAAM 000396 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/E, AF/EPS, AF/RSA, AF/PD AND IO 
USAID/DCHA FOR MHESS, WGARVELINK, LROGERS 
DCHA/OFDA FOR JMYER, YBELAYNEH, KISAACS, GGOTTLIEB, MMARX, 
IMACNAIRN, KCHANNELL, LPOWERS, CABLA 
DCHA/FFP FOR JDWORKEN, DNELSON, SBRADLEY 
DAA/AFR FOR KALMQUIST 
AFR/EA FOR JESCALONA, JBORNS 
REDSO/FFP FOR NESTES 
REDSO/ECA FOR WKNAUSENBERGER 
ROME FOR FODAG 
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH 
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER 
LONDON, PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
NSC FOR JMELINE 
 
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 
-------- 
¶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 
------- 
 
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