08 June 2011, Thikene Ndiaye - More than150 women in the village are participating in the FAO Acacia Project. From 2004 to 2007, in partnership with the Senegalese forestry service, FAO provided seeds and seedlings and taught the women in the village how to plant the acacia trees as well as how to extract and market the gum they produce.

FAO Project: GTFS/RAF/387/ITA - Acacia Operation. Support to Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Soil Degradation Control in the Gums and Resins Producer Countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, Sudan)

Objectives
Gum arabic, myrrh and frankincense are abundant in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa. These local resources present the way forward to sustainable management and development of the Sahel regions, which naturally have fewer options due to difficult environmental conditions. However, irregularity of supply accompanied by fluctuating prices and variable quality from some sources results in unfavourable long-term effects on the demand of these commodities. As a result, producing countries are experiencing problems in relation to commercialization and ensuring a value-added product in relation to international markets. A coordinated strategy among producer countries and partners is therefore needed to capitalize on the existing opportunities and address the constraints. In fact a coordinated strategy will enable producing countries to have better control of the international trade and share different experience in the area of production, processing, quality control and marketing. The project seeks to address these areas and prepare a 10-year plan for development of gum and resin production in the framework of the NGARA network.