Assessment of edible biomass production of Acacia senegal, Guiera senegalensis and Pterocarpus lucens in the Sahelian zone of West Africa

The aim of this work was to evaluate edible biomass production (total and accessible to animals while browsing) of three important browsing species in the Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso: Acacia senegal, Guiera senegalensis and Pterocarpus lucens. Biomass production was also estimated using dendrometric parameters. Accessible edible biomass varied according to the animal species (cattle, sheep or goats), the plant species and the height of plants. G. senegalensis produced the highest proportion of accessible biomass, but P. lucens had higher total edible biomass than the other two species. Goats browsing at higher height had more edible biomass at their disposal than cattle and sheep. Accessible edible biomass was weakly correlated with tree parameters (trunk diameter, crown diameter and height), while crown diameter was the best parameter to predict total edible biomass production, with R 2 varying from 0.90 (G. senegalensis) to 0.98 (P. lucens), when dependent and independent variables were log-transformed. In conclusion, the single species models developed could be applied in similar agro-ecological zones by taking into account the height stratification of the