DETERIORATION OF A SUSTAINABLE AGRO-SILVO-PASTORAL SYSTEM IN THE SUDAN - THE GUM GARDENS OF KORDOFAN

The development and establishment of agroforestry systems is often sug gested as a way to stabilize rural economies in developing countries [ King, 1979]. At the same time, some traditional systems are being lost , due to an inability to protect the perennial or tree crop components of the system. These traditional systems and the forces that reinforc e or destroy them should be carefully studied by those in the process of encouraging adoption of agroforestry systems in the developing worl d. The gum gardens of Western Sudan are a case in point. Acacia senega l (hashab) and Acacia seyal (talh) are the two major marketable gum-p roducing trees found in the western region of Sudan. The Acacias are g rown as part of an agro-silvo-pastoral system that has persisted for m ore than a hundred years in Kordofan Province, where 70% of Sudan's gu m Arabic was once produced, as well as most of its grain and livestock products. After a lengthy drought lasting from 1979 to 1985 gum produ ction in Sudan drastically decreased. It was reported that pest attack s and drought were major causal agents in the decline of gum productio n [Awouda, 1989; Sungar, 19861. A survey executed in Northern Kordofan Province, starting in August of 1986, did uncover a great number of d ead Acacias due to drought and pest attack, but from interviews with g um farmers we conclude that the decline in gum production is largely d ue to unfavorable socioeconomic relationships exacerbated by the droug ht, leading to the deterioration of the agroforestry system of product ion. An inability to get a fair price for gum at the local level and i ncreasing emphasis on a cash economy led to the neglect of the tree co mponents of the system. The gum gardens have long flourished with the intensive husbandry of small-scale farmers. Once these farmers were no longer able to care for them, the gum trees disappeared from the syst em, indicating that a lack of community stability can be fatal to even a well-developed agroforestry system.