Organic and biological resources in Senegalese agroecological systems to biofortify local foods with iron and zinc
2022
Noumsi Foamouhoue, Emmanuel | Kane, A. | Feder, Frédéric | Fernandes, P. | Legros, Samuel | Médoc, Jean-Michel
More than 500 million people in Africa, mainly mother-child pairs, suffer from iron and zinc deficiencies. These deficiencies result from low iron and zinc levels in crop products. The low availability of these micronutrients in Senegalese soils contribute to this problem. Agronomic biofortification is defined as increasing the levels of micronutrients in crop products with agroecological practices. The agroecological practice tested in this study is the combination of organic residual products (ORP) application with beneficial microorganisms (BM) to fertilize cowpea and orange-fleshed sweet potato. Our objective is to evaluate agronomic, nutritional, and environmental impacts of this practice at the field level. Two ORP and one BM were selected for the field trials with a 30 days laboratory scale incubation experiment of soil-ORP- BM mixtures under controlled conditions. ORP were selected according to their iron and zinc content, and their mineralization dynamics. The BM was selected according to his capacity to mineralize carbon and nitrogen and to solubilize iron and zinc from the ORP. Poultry litter and sewage sludge, selected ORP, and fermented forest litter from the south groundnut basin of Senegal mixed with groundnut shells, selected BM, were tested in a split-plot design, considering local agricultural practices. Crops fertilized with poultry litter and the BM present the highest yields. As nutrient yield, iron and zinc contents of the crop products and soil will be determined by ICP-MS. PLFA analysis will determine the impact of established systems on soil microbial communities.
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