VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNJ #0488/01 3011651
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281651Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7371
INFO RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS NDJAMENA 000488 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA ALSO FOR FDA VASHTI KLEIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD ECON
SUBJECT: CHAD:  2009 HARVEST AND FOOD SECURITY SITUATION 
WORRISOME BUT NOT DIRE 
 
REF: STATE 108138 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  In light of concerns on the part of NGO contacts 
and others that this year's cereals harvest will fall short 
of meeting Chad's food needs, Embassy staff had conversations 
October 27 and 28 with Ministry of Agriculture officials 
including Docteur Paul, Deputy Director of Production and 
Agricultural Statistics in the Food Security Division; 
Goipage Akoul Idris, Director of Plant Production; and David 
Adoge-Bang Weinor, Cabinet Director to the Minister, about 
the current food security situation in Chad.  All confirmed 
that Chad's present national estimate for this year's grain 
harvest -- 1.2 million tons -- fell short of the 1.4 million 
tons considered necessary to sustain exiting levels of 
nutrition throughout the country.  The MoA contacts told us 
that the Ministry was watching closely as Chad's harvest 
season approached at the end of the year, given that lack of 
rainfall this summer seemed to be slowing maturation rates 
for corn and millet, and in certain areas causing crops to 
dry up completely.  Goipage also noted that spider 
infestations had taken an unusually large toll on grain this 
year, and that as less arable land was available, 
grain-eating birds were having a more deleterious impact than 
formerly on crops in fields.  Paul said that Chad was working 
with international donors including WFP to attempt to develop 
a better understanding of the relationship between poor 
implementation of environmental policy, which was resulting 
in desertification and increasing land infertility, and this 
year's expected low crop yields. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Paul advised that Chad had most recently revised 
its National Food Security Plan to take into account expected 
shortfalls in this year's harvest in early October.  One key 
element of the revised plan would be attempts to stockpile 
foodstuffs for eventual government distribution, should this 
become necessary.  Based on the updated plan, some animal 
feed was being prepositioned in areas where food animals were 
suffering and dying prematurely from lack of water and 
nutrition.  Paul indicated that the MoA was also trying to 
address traditional tensions between farmers and herders over 
use of arable land for grazing, which had expanded this year 
and now also involved tensions among different groups of 
herders competing for use of pastures.  According to Paul, 
the MoA also had plans to subsidize food prices in zones most 
at risk, in order to curb expected social unrest if shortages 
caused grain prices to rise.  (NOTE:  Chad's National Food 
Security Plan is formally scheduled for review and revision 
again in April 2010, or sooner if conditions warrant.  The 
MoA is receiving technical assistance from the FAO and French 
Cooperation (USAID-equivalent) with the Plan.) 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture Mbailao 
Naimbaye Lossimian, who has recently returned from the UNGA 
and participation in the luncheon on food security hosted by 
Secretary Clinton, has been presiding over a series of events 
calling for "public mobilization" in the aim of maximizing 
harvests so as to limit hunger and malnutrition.  On October 
16, designated "National Food Security Day" in conjunction 
with International Nutrition Day, Minister Mbailao expressed 
hope that Chad could achieve food security even as the 
likelihood of crisis increased, and announced the 
Government's intention to distribute 100 tractors and 30,000 
plows in an effort to boost grain production. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  On October 23, Governor Ngamai Djari of Kanem, a 
chronic food deficit zone, was interviewed on the food 
security situation in his province.  Djari expressed concern 
that rainfall was down this year and ouadis were shallower 
than normal.  He indicated that a number of NGOs were aware 
of the situation and attempting to address it, but no miracle 
solutions appeared to be available. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  We took the opportunity of our meetings with MoA 
officials to deliver reftel demarche on the FDA's new 
Reportable Food Registry.  Weinor noted that Chad appreciated 
the U.S. Administration's development of a tool designed to 
protect human and animal nutritional well-being.  Chad would 
provide information as necessary to the database, he added. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶6.  (SBU)  The MOA officials are the latest in a series of 
local contacts to express concern to us about prospects for 
this year's harvest.  At a briefing last week, a joint 
FEWS-CILSS-World Food Program crop assessment team projected 
a harvest in the neighborhood of 1.1 million tons, vice the 
1.7 million tons that were gathered in 2008-9 (and the 2.0 
million tons that the Minister of Agriculture said he hoped 
 
his gifts of plows and tractors would yield.)  The 
FEWS-CILSS-WFP group admitted that it was still grappling 
with the degree of vulnerability of Chad's population, and 
indicated that it would be in a better position to make 
judgments after the first of the new year.  Asked 
specifically whether the situation warranted the Embassy's 
requesting emergency Title II food aid imports, the team was 
unanimous that current circumstances did not justify such a 
step.  We at the Embassy will rely on the USAID-funded Famine 
Early Warning System project to alert us to potential food 
crises, so that we can react with food aid if needed. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  In Kanem, the USG intervened following failed 
harvests in 1996 and 2001, through FFP and OFDA, with 
specific nutritional programs involving the operation of 
supplementary and therapeutic feeding centers, along with 
development projects aimed at boosting agricultural 
production in ouadis.  In 2001, as a result of a poor harvest 
and spike in malnutrition rates, the Embassy declared a 
disaster and funded a nutrition rehabilitation program in 
Kanem.  Toward the end of the program, OFDA fielded an 
evaluation team that concluded that the situation was 
chronic, and thus did not merit a disaster response.  This 
year, both the WFP and UNICEF have advised Chad's Health 
Minister of their intent to provide resources for a nutrition 
rehabilitation program in Kanem, starting in 2010. 
NIGRO