Abstract
The mineral fertilization manual application by micro-dose is a drudgery work in farming systems of Burkina Faso and needs other solutions. The evaluation of its mechanization was carried out in the central region of Burkina Faso, at Kindi and Bingo villages on sorghum and cowpea. Labor times, and yields were compared. The experimental design was scattered blocks for two crops. Each block included four treatments. For sorghum, they were as follows: T0 = control without fertilizer; T1 = 100 kg ha-1 of NPK + 50 kg ha-1 of urea (recommended dose); T2 = 62.50 kg ha-1 of NPK in manual micro-dose + 31.25 kg ha-1 of urea (manual micro-dose); T3 = 62.50 kg ha-1 of NPK in mechanized micro-dose + 31.25 kg ha-1 of urea (mechanized micro-dose). For cowpea, treatments were identical with NPK which has been combined with 14.29 kg ha-1 of TSP instead of urea. The grain yields obtained on treatments are higher than those of the controls with a probability of 0.002 for sorghum and 0.007 for cowpea. Grains productions are statistically identical between treatments of mineral fertilization by hand (0.841 t ha-1) and mechanized micro-dose (1.094 t ha-1) for sorghum and respectively 1.075 t ha-1 and 1.081 t ha-1 for cowpea, but labor times are different (P<0.0001): mineral fertilization application by hand took 30.26 h ha-1; mechanized application 3.33 h ha-1. Micro-dose practice (manual or mechanized reduces fertilizer quantity applied by ha and nitrogen efficacity for both crops production is increased by 60% compared to the usual recommended practice (T1). The mechanized micro-dose fertilization reduces labor time to one-tenth.
