Morphopedological Characteristics of Soils under Shea Trees in the Bouna Region of Northeast Côte d'Ivoire

The present study was initiated to characterize the soils of three (03) ecological zones of natural establishment of shea in the region of Boukani, in the north-east of Côte d'Ivoire. The study consisted of opening soil pits for morphological characterization following the approach of the Office of Scientific and Technical Research Overseas, based on in situ observation. Botanical data such as density per square meter, trunk diameter at 1.30 m from the ground and their spatial arrangement were also collected. The areas concerned are the villages of Gnarkèradouo, Assoum 2 and Nakélé. The results observed show a significant difference between sites. The shea park is denser in Gnarkèradouo (44.16%), followed by the Assoum 2 park with 38.32% of shea trees and finally the Nakélé site where 17.52% are observed. For the circumference of trees at 1.30 m from the ground, the results show that it is at Nakélé that large trees are observed with high values of 144 cm, then at Assoum 2 (126.2 cm) and finally at Gnarkèradouo with 114.8 cm.

The characteristics of the soils show similarities on the 3 sites. These are gravelly soils with obstacles (indurations). However, the soil at Assoum 2 appears to be different because it is deep. The texture is sandy-clay on all three sites.