Located in West Africa, landlocked Mali is nearly twice the size of Texas. The terrain is predominately savanna and sand-covered plains; 65 percent of the country is desert or semi-desert. The Niger River flows through the heart of the country, flooding annually and creating pasture land for livestock. The river forms a magnificent inland delta across an alluvial plain supporting unique and lush vegetation for six months of the year.

The French colonized much of West Africa in the late 19th century, but left little mark on present-day Mali. Malians won their independence in 1960, but Sahel-wide droughts in the early 1970s and again in the early 1980s, severely eroded the country's agriculture-based economy. In 1992, citizens voted in Mali's first civilian government. Today the government works to put the country on secure economic footings, focusing on food security, natural resource development, environmental protection and education. Still, Mali today is one of the world's poorest countries, with an annual per capita income of $260 (1991, CARE-Mali). Eighty percent of Malians rely on the land for their livelihood. Most are farmers who practice rain-fed agriculture on small landholdings, many raise livestock and some earn their living from fishing the Niger, Senegal, Bani and other rivers.

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