Experiments were located at Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, Ejiba and Horticultural Section College of Agriculture, Kabba in 2014 cropping season to investigate the effect of different spacing and urea application rates on fruit nutrient composition, growth and fruit yield of tomato in derived savanna vegetation of Nigeria. Field experiments were arranged in a randomized complete block design in factorial fashion with three replications. The row spacing were 75 × 40 cm (33,333 plant•ha −1 ), 75 × 50 cm (26,666 plant•ha −1 ) and 75 × 60 cm (22,222 plant•ha −1 ) while the urea rates comprised control (0 kg urea•ha −1 ), 54.3 and 108.6 kg urea•ha −1 . Growth and yield parameters taken were as follows: average plant height, stem girth, leaf area (m 2 ) and yield per land area. Data were collected from ten randomly selected plants in each plot. The data were statistically analyzed using GENSTAT. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to find out the significance of variation among the treatments while the significant difference between mean treatments was separated using least significance Difference at 5% level of probability. The result obtained from this study indicated that urea application and spacing affected significantly growth parameters of tomato and yield per land area. It could be concluded that there was a significant increase in plant height, number of leaves, number of fruits per plant and final fruit weight of tomato as a result of urea fertilizer application at the rate of 108.6 kg urea/ha. However, this was not significantly better than plots with urea application at 54.8 kg/ha in both Ejiba and Kabba. Row spacing of 75 × 50 cm showed better performance in number of fruit and fruit yield per plots. Farmers in Ejiba and Kabba should apply urea at the rate of 54.8 kg per hectare and plant the crop at a row spacing of 75 × 50 cm for optimum yield and for a more profitable production of tomato.

An experiment was carried out for two consecutive growing seasons (2012 and 2013) at the Research Site of the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, Ejiba, Nigeria, to examine the response of sorghum to tillage methods and foliar fertilizer (Boost Extra TM) application. A split plot experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates to randomize the tillage methods (main plots) and foliar fertilizer application (sub-plots), respectively. The experiment comprised of three tillage methods: No Tillage (NT), Manual Tillage (MT) and convectional tillage (Ploughing, Harrowing and Ridging, PHR) and three foliar fertilizer rates: 0, 2 and 4 liters of foliar fertilizer per hectare. The parameters taken on soil physical properties and weed characters are soil moisture content (%), soil temperature (˚C), weed species and weed dry weight (g). Growth and yield parameters taken are: average plant height (cm), stem girth (cm), leaf area (m 2), days to 50% flowering, root dry weight (g), shoot dry weight (g), weight of 1000 seeds and grain yield per land area. Weeds were identified and harvested, and their dry weights were taken and recorded. Data were also collected from ten randomly selected plants in each plot. The data were statistically analyzed using GENSTAT. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to find out the significance of variation among the treatments while the significant differences between mean treatments were separated using Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at 5% level of probability. The results obtained from this study indicated that tillage methods and foliar fertilizer application significantly affected growth and yield parameters of sorghum, consequently the * Corresponding author. yield per unit area. The results also indicated that "Manually Tilled" seedbed (MT) improved soil physical properties better than either plots with PHR or No Till plots in the study area. Foliar fertilizer application at 2 l/ha performed best in terms of growth and yield. It is therefore recommended that manual tillage should be used as a method of seedbed preparation for sorghum production. However, better and stable grain yield of sorghum could be obtained with the practice of manual tillage (MT) in combination with foliar fertilization at rate of 2 litres/ha. It is recommended that different tillage methods should be combined with foliar fertilizer application for higher grain yield in the study area.

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