Early performance of thirteen provenances of four Australian Acacia species at Tabora, Tanzania

Deforestration, decline of soil fertility and low crop yields, and shortage of fuel wood are threating the livelihoods of rural communities in the country. Farmers are responding to this situation in parts of Tabora region of Africa by planting woodlots using fast-growing Australian Acacia spp. However, a limited number of species has so far been tested, so there is a need to provide farmers with a wider array of species to increase diversity on-farms. In this study, thirteen provences of four Australian Acacia species(four of Acacia crassicarpa, four of A. julifera, three of A. leptocarpa and two of A. auriculiformis) obtained from CSIRO (Australia) were tested from October 1998 for their performance at Tabora. Provances differed significantly in terms of tree survival at the age of 3 years except for the first six months. The seven provances A. crassicarpa (19739), A. auriculiformis (19621), A. crassicarpa (13682), A. leptocarpa (19006), A. julifera var. julifera (14890), A. leptocarpa (16176) and A. leptocarpa (16179) had survuval of above 70%. Provenances did not differ significantly in terms of tree mean height and diameter at breast height. The mean height of all provenances was 4.7m and mean tree diameter was 4.3cm. however, provenances differed significantly in terms of wood volume and total biomass production, which ranged from 2.0 to 10.1m cubic ha~1 and 7.3 to 24.3t ha~1 respectively.

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