Field-scale influence of karité (Vitellaria paradoxa) on sorghum production in the Sudan zone of Burkina Faso |
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| Authors: | J-M Boffa S J-B Taonda J B Dickey D M Knudson |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1159, USA;(2) 94 Howard St, Sliema, Malta;(3) Programme Gestion des Ressources Naturelles et Systèmes de Production (GRNSP), Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA), 01, B.P. 476, Ouagadougou, 01, Burkina Faso;(4) Agricultural Research and Training Support Project, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;(5) Present address: CH2MHill, Redding, CA 96049-2478, USA |
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| Abstract: | Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) production in 15 transect blocks, each with a karité (Vitellaria paradoxa C. F. Gaertn.) tree at each end, was evaluated on-farm in a village of southern Burkina Faso in a season of below-average rainfall. Under tree crowns, plant height and grain yield were significantly lower, by a factor of 16% for grain yield, than elsewhere in transects. In addition, mean plant height, and mean biomass and grain production per area as well as per plant were higher at the outside edge of tree crowns than in the middle of the field. Soil moisture content decreased significantly with increasing distance from the tree in the 0–20 cm soil layer. Top soils were also richer in organic carbon and potassium around tree crowns than in the middle of blocks. Sorghum performance in the zone under and around canopies was projected at field scale and compared to central transect controls. Grain production in karité parklands was higher with trees of mean crown radii of 225 to 275 cm, average densities of 12 and 31 trees/ha than in areas without trees. Therefore, farmers do not improve cereal production by reducing parkland tree densities below these levels. When nut production is included in the analysis, maintaining trees in fields can be economically advantageous at all densities.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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| Keywords: | agroforestry parklands cereal shea semiarid West Africa tree density tree-crop interface |
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