Research

Thanks to support from Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-WOTRO) through the project W08.270.321, the editors and authors were able to complete the full compilation of papers presented at an International Acacia Conference in Mekelle, Ethiopia, on 7-8 March 2014.

The objectives of the conference were:

1. To share and review research outputs of Acacia saligna tree and set modalities of scaling-up for good results that can contribute to the socioeconomic and environmental benefits and services as well as identifying gaps and challenges that required further research and improvement measures;
2. To exchange knowledge and share experiences on the contribution of Australian Acacia species to the efforts underway to improve food and feed security and adapt to the changing climate;
3. To facilitate and strengthen the collaboration between governmental and non-governmental organizations for the completion of Acacia seed food safety and human volunteer trials in a way to address all the safety procedures for its use as a human food in the future;
4. To synthesize ideas that can help in formulating the second phase of the project to complete the ongoing and remaining research activities of the project and scale up of successful findings; and
5. To publish the results to reach a wider audience and create networking in order to use the research outputs as well as doing further research and development activities.

The full proceedings may be downloaded here (6.3 MB).