Vegetable fertilization and post-harvest rot of onion bulbs (Allium cepa L.) in Burkina Faso

Abstract

The bulb onion is the first market garden crop in Burkina Faso. However, many bulbs are lost during the post-harvest conservation because of the poor quality of the bulbs from farms. This

study focuses on onion fertilization practices in three regions of Burkina Faso (Boucle du Mouhoun, Nord, Centre-Nord) through a survey involving 174 farmers in 2019. Then, a conservation trial was carried out with bulbs sampled in 16 farms among the sample previously surveyed. According to the results, the farmers' fertilization practices are very inappropriate due to a diversity of NPK fertilizer formulas combined to the excessive doses of NPK fertilizers with an average of 1140 ± 652 kg /ha. In addition, only 12% of farmers use the adequate NPK formula whereas the organic manure is little used with regard to the low doses (235 ± 280 kg /ha). Also, there are positive associative trends between the bulb losses and the dose of urea and the bulb size. This trend is negative between the bulb losses and the dose of organic manure. The further investigations will have to optimize the doses of mineral and organic fertilizers in order to improve the quality of onion bulbs provided by the farmers.