The Camel Thorn Acacia albida (syn. Faidherbia albidia)
Although Acacia albida is not strictly speaking a human food crop, no discussion of
legumes would be complete without mention of this valuable leguminous tree
(Mimosaceae family), the Camel Thorn (also known as Ana Tree, Apple-ring
Acacia, Winter Thorn, Kertor, Grar, Gerbi, Derot, etc).
Farmers make use of this drought resistant tree in hot regions such as tropical
and southern Africa, Cyprus, Israel and Lebanon. In West Africa and elsewhere it is
intercropped with sorghum and millet.
The tree has several attributes which can improve the food production
possibilities in the dry tropics and subtropics, the most interesting feature being that
it tends to lose leaves just as the rainy season begins, with the following advantages:
animal forage is available towards the end of the dry season, at a time when
other trees and forage plants have few or no leaves;
a single tree can produce more than 100 kg of 27% protein pods, which fall
from the trees at the hungriest time of year, at the end of the dry season. In an
emergency, the pods can be eaten by humans;
the leaves shade the soil under the trees and so protect the soil from wind
erosion;
the leaves, together with manure from the animals grazing underneath, enrich
the soil and so make it more suitable for crop production. Leaf fall is perfectly
timed to provide nutrients when they are most needed;
during the rainy season, sunlight can reach crops growing under the trees
because there are no leaves.•
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can fix 45 kg/ha of Nitrogen or more in the soil, equivalent to 112 kg/ha of urea or
225 kg/ha of ammonium sulphate. The topic of Nitrogen fixation is discussed in
more detail in Section 2Fe, page 54.