Inadequate land management and agricultural activities have largely resulted in land degradation in Burkina Faso. The nationwide governmental and institutional driven implementation and adoption of soil and water conservation measures (SWCM) since the early 1960s, however, is expected to successively slow down the degradation process and to increase the agricultural output. Even though relevant measures have been taken, only a few studies have been conducted to quantify their effect, for instance, on soil erosion and environmental restoration. In addition, a comprehensive summary of initiatives, implementation strategies, and eventually region-specific requirements for adopting different SWCM is missing. The present study therefore aims to review the different SWCM in Burkina Faso and implementation programs, as well as to provide information on their effects on environmental restoration and agricultural productivity. This was achieved by considering over 143 studies focusing on Burkina Faso’s experience and research progress in areas of SWCM and soil erosion. SWCM in Burkina Faso have largely resulted in an increase in agricultural productivity and improvement in food security. Finally, this study aims at supporting the country’s informed decision-making for extending already existing SWCM and for deriving further implementation strategies.
Most calibration sampling designs for Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) demarcate spatially distinct sample sites. In practical applications major challenges are often limited field accessibility and the question on how to integrate legacy soil samples to cope with usually scarce resources for field sampling and laboratory analysis. The study focuses on the development and application of an efficiency improved DSM sampling design that (1) applies an optimized sample set size, (2) compensates for limited field accessibility, and (3) enables the integration of legacy soil samples. The proposed sampling design represents a modification of conditioned Latin Hypercube Sampling (cLHS), which originally returns distinct sample sites to optimally cover a soil related covariate space and to preserve the correlation of the covariates in the sample set. The sample set size was determined by comparing multiple sample set sizes of original cLHS sets according to their representation of the covariate space. Limited field accessibility and the integration of legacy samples were incorporated by providing alternative sample sites to replace the original cLHS sites. We applied the modified cLHS design (cLHS adapt ) in a small catchment (4.2 km 2 ) in Central China to model topsoil sand fractions using Random Forest regression (RF). For evaluating the proposed approach, we compared cLHS adapt with the original cLHS design (cLHS orig ). With an optimized sample set size n = 30, the results show a similar representation of the cLHS covariate space between cLHS adapt and cLHS orig , while the correlation between the covariates is preserved (r = 0.40 vs. r = 0.39). Furthermore, we doubled the sample set size of cLHS adapt by adding available legacy samples (cLHS adapt+ ) and compared the prediction accuracies. Based on an external validation set cLHS val (n = 20), the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of the cLHS adapt predictions range between 0.59 and 0.71 for topsoil sand fractions. The R 2 -values of the RF predictions based on cLHS adapt+ , using additional legacy samples, are marginally increased on average by 5%.
This paper assesses the current use and constraints on the use of inland valleys in central Benin are assessed to analyse their agro-potential. The methodology applied in this study is comprised of a survey of local authorities and inland valley users conducted with standardised questionnaires and the mapping of inland valley surfaces with GPS. The questionnaire contains questions to socioeconomic aspects such as access to an inland valley, land tenure, current use, use constraints as well as questions to physical properties such as soil quality. In addition to the assessment of the inland valley surface area, this approach enabled a detailed socioeconomic and rough physical characterization of all detected inland valleys. In total, 817 inland valleys were surveyed in this study. The local population currently uses sixty-seven percent of the valleys, primarily for crop cultivation. In most cases, only a small part of each surveyed inland valley is used. The intensity of exploitation varies across communes and across seasons. Especially in the more densely populated communes of Djougou and Parakou, where the upland soils are often degraded and arable land has become scarce in recent years, the use of inland valleys is greater than in less populated communes. This exploitation occurs primarily during the rainy season, and only a few farmers cultivate crops during the dry season. This study revealed high unused agro-potential in the inland valleys of central Benin. The main reason why inland valleys in the study area currently remain unexploited is a lack of experience in cultivating wetland. In fact, for more than 60% of the unused inland valleys, the local farmers claim to have no knowledge of which crops are adapted to seasonally waterlogged and swampy land or how to cultivate such crops. Due to climate change and population growth, the agricultural use of inland valleys in this region could become more important in the future. To ensure effective use, farmers should be supported by the regional agricultural organisation CeRPA (Centres Régionaux pour la Promotion Agricol) or development organisations to improve the knowledge of cultivation methods and inland valley management. Zusammenfassung: In diesem Artikel werden die aktuelle Nutzung und die Probleme der Nutzung von �lachmuldent�-In diesem Artikel werden die aktuelle Nutzung und die Probleme der Nutzung von �lachmuldent�lern (inland valleys) in Zentralbenin basierend auf einer standardisierten Befragung der lokalen Bevölkerung und einer GPS-Kartierung analysiert. Der �ragebogen enth�lt sowohl �ragen zu sozio-ökonomischen Aspekten wie Zugang zum inland valley, Landrechten, aktuelle Nutzung, Probleme der Nutzung etc. als auch �ragen zu physischen Eigenschaften wie z.B. Bodenqualit�t. Mit diesem Ansatz konnten neben der reinen Erfassung der inland valley �l�che auch eine umfassende sozioökonomische und eine grobe physische Charakterisierung aller erfassten inland valleys erfolgen. Insgesamt wurden 817 inland valleys in dieser Studie untersucht. 67% dieser �euch...
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