Soil Fertility Management in the Region of Gourma, Burkina Faso, West Africa

Meeting the millennium development goals in Africa, such as poverty reduction, alimentary self-sufficiency, sustainable natural resources management etc., can only be achieved by intensification and increasing crop yield per unit area. Despite the research efforts made in the field of soil fertility management and the proposition of technology packages, crop yields are still below population needs in Africa. How can African soil adequately nourish its population? To answers this question, field investigations using a rapid and participatory method of research were carried out in 15 villages of the region of Gourma. The investigations aimed to determine farmers’ knowledge on soil resources: soil classification, soil degradation using local indicators, local soil fertility management, and smallholder farmers’ capacity to adopt new technologies in soil fertility management. The results of the investigations show that the main parameter for soil classification was texture. Fallow, organic manure and crop rotation were the main soil fertility management methods; soil degradation was judged according to the agricultural output, and the apparition of certain species of weeds. Concerning the villages where modern soil fertility management technologies were introduced, the lack of tools and information were the main limiting factors for the adoption of these technologies at the smallholder farmers’ level. Our investigations have shown that stone belt construction in the field was essential for limitation of soil erosion processes and additionally they represent a starting point of intensification encouraging farmers from the practice of shifting agriculture.