Ethnopedology for solving problems of soil management and sustainable agriculture implementation in West Africa Savannah regions

Abstract

Recently many scientific studies have shown the relevance of ethnopedological informations in the different agro-ecological and socio-cultural context of Africa. However, information did not sufficiently serve in solving the problems of land degradation and famine affecting seriously Sub-Saharan nations. Strategies of best and wide use of indigenous knowledge are to be refined. The main objective of the present article is to analyze the ethnopedological informations and to discuss the possibilities of their integration to databases development. The structure and the quality of ethnopedological informations allow their integration in large and dynamic databases for better soil and environmental management and sustainable agriculture. Such databases must also include information from conventional academic studies (as biophysical, socioeconomic and market studies).