Impact of Inoculation of Vachellia Seyal by Symbiotic Microorganisms on Microbial Community Restoration and Chemical Characteristics of the Degraded soil in the Sahelian zone, Burkina Faso.

Land degradation and desertification are serious challenges in the Sahel, limiting the agro- pastoral productivity and compromising food security and plant biodiversity. In Burkina Faso, about 45% of arable lands are severely or moderately degraded while the agro-sylvo-pastoral sector occupies 80% of the population. Hence, large scale land restoration through planting becomes a high priority in the last decades, involving regional program like the Africa’s Great Green Wall. In this context, a direct sowing and plantation of Vachellia seyal inoculated with symbiotic microorganisms was applied previously with regards to the vegetation cover restoration from a degraded Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso. Thus, this study evaluated the impact of the inoculation of Vachellia seyal on soil microbiology and chemical properties. For that, soil samples were collected from restorated lands with plants inoculated Vachellia seyal and those from direct sowing. Samples were analyzed to evaluate their mycorrhizal infectivity, rhizobia number and changes in their chemical properties such as carbon, nitrogen, available phosphorus and exchangeable potassium. Results showed that dual inoculation stimulated the multiplication of symbiotic microorganisms due to the synergistic relationship between the two icroorganisms. However, organic carbon was slowly accumulating while nitrogen, available phosphorus and exchangeable potassium were being used continuously by Vachellia seyal as well as other plants regenerated spontaneously from the soil. Such inputs support the resilience and boost the success of large scale restoration of degraded soils in the region.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.