@article{icrisat5456, title = {Survival and growth responses of Jatropha curcas L. to three restoration techniques on degraded soils in Burkina Faso}, author = {W F Kagambega and A Thiombiano and S Traor{\'e} and R B Zougmore and J I Boussim}, pages = {171--184}, year = {2011}, volume = {54}, note = {This study was financed by the project ?Sus-tainable use of natural vegetation? located in West Africa (EU FP6 031685). Their support is gratefully acknowledged. We are indebted to our field assistant Clement Sedogo, who helped with data collection, to Dr. Alanna Rebelo for english editing and to Dr. Fid{\`e}le Bognounou for assistance in statistical analysis. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers whose pertinent comments considerably improve the quality of our paper.}, journal = {Annals of Forest Research}, number = {2}, keywords = {soil degradation, land reclamation, water harvesting, water infiltration, afforestation.}, url = {http://oar.icrisat.org/5456/}, abstract = {Land degradation is a major problem in the Sahelian countries. Erosion control through establishment of vegetation cover is at important strategy to reverse the trend. Our research objective was to analyse the e-ffects of three restoration techniques on Jatropha curcas L. seedlings growth and survivorship. Were conducted two separate field trials, involving the sowing and planting of J. curcas, in which several different soil restoration techniques were applied. The trial was monitored using a ran-domized block study design over a period of two years. The design included ten different treatments, six in the sowing trial and four in the planting trial, each with three replicates. In the first experiment, growth rate was found to be significantly higher in the Sub-Soiling treatment, that received additional organic matter than other treatments. However, overall survival rate was low (18\%). In the second experiment, the Half-moon treatment yielded a significantly higher growth both in height (df = 3, F = 56.74, p {\ensuremath{<}} 0.05) and diameter (df = 3, F = 31.76, p {\ensuremath{<}} 0.05) and survival rate compared to those of the other treatments (df = 3, F = 50.4, p {\ensuremath{<}} 0.05). In conclusion, planting seedlings produced a greater survival rate than sowing seeds. Among tested the soil restoration and water conservation techniques the Half-moon technique was found as the most effective. This is recommended to be used for improving the revegetation of J. curcas in the future. } }