Land use Dynamic and Soil Fertility in the Orodara Municipality, Burkina Faso

Abstract

To respond to the degradation of natural resources and the installation of an imbalance between production and consumption needs, the populations of Orodara have adopted an association of fruit arboriculture and cereal growing on the same plot. These changes have favoured the development of a specific agrarian landscape of the fruit agroforestry type. This study questions the evolution of soil fertility in the face of land use dynamics in Orodara. The exploitation of Landsat satellite images of multi-dates (1991 to 2018) made it possible to obtain information on land use. Fertility data were obtained from the analysis of the organic matter, the sum of exchangeable bases as well as the hydrogen potential (pH) of soils from 1997 to 2019. The analysis of our results shows a production system dominated by fruit growing in association with cereal growing. Two units of agricultural occupation were divided in 1991 between annual crops (56%) and permanent crops (4%). Between 2002 and 2018, a third unit developed from the association of the first two, occupying 39% of the total area in 2018, compared to 19 and 13% respectively occupied by annual and permanent crops. This dynamic affects the evolution of soil fertility. From 1997 to 2019, fertility decreased by 23% from the average rate and increased by 22% from the low fertility rate. Contrary to the increase in vegetation cover, the level of soil fertility declines, compromising the sustainability of agricultural production in the municipality of Orodara.