Early growth performance and water use of planted West African provenances of Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn (karité) in Gonsé, Burkina Faso.

A participatory selection trial of five provenances from Burkina Faso (3), Mali (1) and Senegal (1) was established in Burkina Faso in 1997 with the aim of addressing issues of the long juvenile phase and the large variability in annual fruit yields of Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn in West Africa. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate survival rate and the growth performance of the five provenances, characterize the wetting profile under which the trees of these provenances are growing and quantify the variation in their seasonal transpiration. The design was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with single tree as the experimental unit which was replicated 70 times. The results showed a mean survival rate of 50% for all provenances. Passore (Burkina Faso), Djonon-Karaba (Mali) and Botou-Fada (Burkina Faso) provenances showed the highest height and collar diameter whereas the provenance of Gonse (Burkina Faso) performed poorly. Djonon-Karaba provenance displayed the highest water use (2.70 l day−1 tree−1 in 2004 and 2.85 l day−1 tree−1 in 2005). Soil water content under Passore provenance was the lowest (9.38%) whereas its content under Gonse provenance (11%) was the highest with no clear pattern according to the distance from tree trunk. Samecouta and Djonon-Karaba provenances showed the highest transpiration values per sapwood unit area in 2004 (0.079 l cm−2 day−1) and in 2005 (0.069 l m−2 day−1), respectively. Based on growth performance and water use, it can be recommended at this early stage the selection of Djonon-Karaba and Passore provenances as the most suitable for semi-arid regions of West Africa. However, there is a need for further data to model the long term effects of these provenances on soil water balance and their fruit production before reliable recommendations can be made to farmers.