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Irrigation water suitability assessment plays an imperative role for sustainable utilization of scarce physical land resources. The study was aimed at assessing the suitability of groundwater quality for irrigation purpose at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Random sampling techniques were utilized in the selection of samples of groundwater. Accordingly, five groundwater samples were collected from five boreholes for chemical analysis. The groundwater samples were analyzed for Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + , Na + , CO 3 2-, HCO 3-, Cl-, SO 4 2-, and NO 3 besides pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Also, the Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) for the groundwater samples and Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP) for the soil samples were computed. Out of the analyzed 5 groundwater samples, 2 showed EC values below 250 and the remaining between 750 and 1161 dS/m, and pH values ranged from 6.3 to 7.6. Chloride ion concentrations in groundwater ranged from 64 to 78 mg/l; bicarbonate (HCO 3-) values ranged from 0.18 to 0.23 (mg/l); and nitrate (NO3-N) values were below 5 mg/l except in one sample that had 5.87 mg/l as its value. The results indicated that Original Research Article

The aim was to evaluate the suitability of the soils for the production of maize and to have a detailed soil database for effective land use planning. Soil requirements for maize were collected from past research works and compared with data obtained from the field survey. The study showed that the soils of the area had formed under climatic environment presently characterized by an annual rainfall of about 1330.20 mm and a mean annual temperature of about 27.80°C. The soils of the upper slope were classified as Typic Paleustalfs, while those of the middle and lower slopes were classified as Typic Haplustalfs and Typic Kandiaqualfs respectively, using soil taxonomy. The soils were well drained to poorly drained. The clay content ranged from 7.20 to 29.30, increasing with depth. Organic carbon was low (0.47%) in the upland and relatively high (0.86%) in the low land. The suitability assessment results showed that although, certain qualities or characteristics such as mean annual temperature, relative humidity and base saturation were optimum for maize cultivation, there was however, no highly suitable (S1) land for maize cultivation in the area. All the soils were classified into moderately suitable (S2f) subclass due to their low