Optimizing Indigenous Soil Fertility Assessments. A Case Study in Cotton-Based Systems in Burkina Faso
(2015) Land Degradation & Development — n° 28, p. 1875-1886 (2015)
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- Participatory development of sustainable soil fertility (SF) management practices requires building bridges between science and indigenous knowledge. Whereas scientific SF indicators are reasonably standardized, indigenous SF indicators are site-specific and system-specific. Furthermore, the process of indigenous SF evaluation is very time consuming. This study therefore aimed at investigating the compatibility between local and analytical SF indicators, and at optimizing the process of indigenous SF assessment. Thirteen cotton plots were evaluated by famers on a scale from 0 (fertile) to 5 (degraded) and sampled for physico-chemical characterization. Farmers identified 13 SF indicators related to soil, crop status, biological activity and management. Of these, 10 were retained to calculate a local SF index (LFI). Clay and silt content, pHwater and P-Bray explained 88% of the total variance in LFI, indicating good yet incomplete compatibility between the indigenous and scientific approaches. Because of redundancy among local indicators, it was shown that the LFI could be estimated using one pedoindicator, one bio-indicator and one phyto-indicator without significant loss of accuracy. However, a minimum local indicator dataset composed of six indicators was recommended to allow for data cross-checking. There was a trade-off between the number of indicators and the number of farmers needed to estimate the LFI. There was a reasonable agreement between local and analytical fertility indicators, even though farmers’ perception appeared rather more based on the effect and consequences of SF than on its actual status. Although compatible, analytical indicators should be translated into variables similar to local indicators in order to facilitate communication.
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Kambire, F., Bielders, C., & Kestemont, M.-P. (2015). Optimizing Indigenous Soil Fertility Assessments. A Case Study in Cotton-Based Systems in Burkina Faso. Land Degradation & Development, 28, 1875-1886. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2381 (Original work published 2015)