INSIDE TECHNICAL COOPERATION Vol. 3, No. 3 |
Zanzibar Prepares for the Post Tsetse Area
Tanzania's efforts to control the tsetse with the SIT began more than 30 years ago, when the Tsetse Trypanosomiasis Research Institute (TTRI) was set up in Tanga with support from the United States through the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Flies were reared on live animals, primarily for entomological research. But early efforts at control, on the mainland and in Zanzibar, had limited success. The first IAEA technical cooperation project began in 1984 to demonstrate the feasibility of mass-rearing techniques and concentrated on upgrading the TTRI facility and its equipment. Mass rearing technology, developed by the IAEA and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at the Seibersdorf Laboratories in Austria, were transferred to TTRI through fellowships for scientists and technicians from Tanga and Zanzibar. During the past decade, 14 fellows spent 3-6 months each in Seibersdorf. They attended courses that were designed to enable them to employ their skills directly in the rearing facility in Tanga, as well as train others at home. By the early 1990s, TTRI had become the largest tsetse rearing facility in the world, enabling aerial releases of 50,000 sterile males per week and 100,000 at peak production during the last two years. Suppression of the tsetse population in the wild began at ground level on Unguja during the late 1980s, using insecticide-impregnated screens and traps. The campaign was supported by the FAO and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The IAEA then launched a TC Model Project, with technical support from the Joint FAO/IAEA Division, in 1994 with the aim of complete eradication. Under the Model Project, aerial releases of sterilized males began over the most infested and inaccessible regions of southern Unguja and were extended later to the north.
It will be important to develop agriculture systematically and avoid haphazard cultivation and over-grazing. Preliminary plans call for improvement of livestock through cross-breeding with more productive breeds from the mainland and abroad. The island?s native cattle tolerated tsetse-spread disease. But they are small, yield little milk and meat, and are not very good for animal power. To build the herd, supplements will be developed using rice bran, coconut refuse, molasses, and poultry manure in locally manufactured feedstuffs called urea molasses multi-nutrient blocks. Introduction of higher yielding varieties of rice and other grains is being planned. Systematic cultivation of nitrogen-producing leguminous trees such as glyricidia in the grasslands could fertilize pastures and could also be incorporated into cattle feedstock. High-quality grasses such as Napier and Guatemala, which already grow on the island and are well adapted, could be introduced into the pastureland. Working together with the IAEA, local officials are very hopeful that, with their island finally tsetse-free, Zanzibar has entered a new stage of agricultural advancement.
|
BACK TO MAIN PAGE |
The tsetse fly appears to be a pest of the past on Zanzibar's
Unguja island. An independent group of experts recently confirmed
that since September 1996 not a single wild fly has been caught
in the array of traps set out in once heavily infested areas.
The 
With eradication completed, the Government of Zanzibar plans to
use the land for integrated dairy farming and cropping systems,
and to promote goat rearing in marginal areas, according to Dr.
Kassim Juma, Commissioner of Agriculture and Livestock. Implementation
will require technologies and skills that Zanzibar lacks. Isotopic
and other nuclear techniques could be especially valuable in improving
animal and crop productivity. In October 1997, a mission under
the IAEA's TC Country Programme Framework visited Tanzania to
map out medium-term assistance for the whole country, paying special
attention to Zanzibar's needs. A new TC project is being developed
for Zanzibar focused on crop and livestock production in the post-tsetse
era.
