Département Gestion des Ressources Naturelles et Systèmes de Production, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique, Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (CNRST, INERA), 01 BP 476 Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
Soil fauna significantly influences soil properties. Organic and inorganic fertilization in agriculture, including the amendment with phosphate rock, may affect its presence in soils. This study evaluated the effect of calcined phosphate rock associated with organic matter on the abundance and diversity of soil macrofauna in semi-arid areas of Burkina Faso. Nine treatments were replicated four times each and applied in a complete randomized block design in sorghum and cowpea fields. These treatments were: absolute control (Control) without fertilizer, control with organic matter only (OM), Burkina Phosphate Rock (BPR) with 23 P ha-1, calcined phosphate rock (CPR with 23 P kg ha-1), Triple super phosphate (TSP), complex fertilizer (NPK), CPR ½ +TSP ½, CPR ¾ +TSP ¼, CPR ¼ +TSP ¾ Urea provided N, and KCl supplied K in the BPR and TSP treatments. P was supplied by Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) in the TSP treatment. K and P were supplied by the complex fertilizer NPK in NPK treatment. Results showed that BPR and CPR did not significantly (P˃0.05) improve soil fauna abundance and diversity after two years. Four orders, Coleoptera, Haplotaxida, Hymenoptera, and Isoptera, were largely dominant (more than 50 %) in all treatments, crops, and years. The population diversity of soil macrofauna rises from 0.98 (2021) to 1.49 (2022) in the sorghum field and from 1.16 (2021) to 1.63 (2022) in the cowpea field. Soil macrofauna numbers rise from 24.64 ind/m2 (2021) to 39.59 Ind/m2 (2022) in the cowpea field. Our findings suggest that cultivated soil fauna can be managed more appropriately with fertilizers from phosphate rock by combining organic matter application and cereal-legume associations.