The increasing demand of Cassava for our dietary needs and shortage experienced going by the burgeoning global population is a cause for concern that require urgent attention. The study therefore considered the effect of some selected soil properties, nutrients, moisture content, yield and consumptive water use (CWU) on two selected Cassava varieties TMS 0581 and TME 419 respectively. The design was a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) of four treatments and three replicates. Treatment A had fertigation, B used poultry manure, C employed NPK, 15-15-15 while D with no treatment was used as control. Soil properties such as Bulk Density (BD), Particle Density (PD), soil classification and nutrients such as Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), Organic Matter (OM), Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K) and others were determined using standard procedures. Penman-Monteith (PM) model was used in estimating reference evapotranspiration (ETr) while its product with crop coefficient (Kc) produced crop evapotranspiration (ETc). Moisture content was measured at depths 10, 20 and 30 cm respectively while water use efficiency (WUE), irrigation water applied and tuber yield were also determined. The findings of this study showed that all the soil properties were within permissible levels to encourage optimum agronomic development of Cassava plant and the class was entirely a loamy soil which permits well-developed roottuber configuration. Tuber yields varied from 21.96 Kg to 25.13 Kg for TMS 0581 variety while TME 419 had 17.04 Kg to 31.63 Kg in all the treatments. Deficiencies were observed in some of the nutrients which were replenished with the introduction of the fertilizers among the plots. Moisture content at 30 cm depth is suggestive of adequate water availability sufficient enough to encourage proper tuber development for optimum yield while fertigation technique was adjudged the best as it improved Cassava Tuberization and WUE in all the treatments considered.

Biochar application in the soil is a major strategy for modifying or improving its physicochemical properties, while soil fertility can be boosted by fertilizer application. The process of soil amendment was explored to investigate the impact of combined biochar and fertilizer treatments on soil properties and yield of New Rice for Africa (NERICA 2) upland rice variety. A Randomized Complete Block Design experiment was conducted using three different fertilizer types, three different biochar concentrations, and two sets of control each, with zero biochar and zero fertilizer. The biochar levels were 0 t/ha, 5 t/ha, 10 t/ha, and 15 t/ha, while the fertilizer types were zero fertilizer, liquid organic fertilizer (LOF), solid fertilizer (NPK), and farmyard poultry manure (PM). A drip irrigation system with the completed layout captured the entire set-up, while soil properties were measured before soil treatment, post-season 1, and post-season 2. A significant increase in particle density from 3 3 3 3 2.51 g/cm3 to 2.56 g/cm3 was recorded while bulk density decreased from 1.42 g/cm3 to 1.41 g/cm3 , and soil textural classification remained relatively unchanged. Organic carbon, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, cation exchange capacity, and base saturation increased from their respective pre-treatment values. Also, soil pH improved significantly from 6.38 to 6.37. There was a better improvement in soil properties, which resulted in increased paddy rice yield with an average value of 6.36 t/ha obtained using NPK with a biochar concentration of 15 t/ha (NPKB15) treatment. This is an equivalent of approximately 400% increase in yield compared to the zero fertilizer and zero biochar (FOBO) treatment yield of 1.14 t/ha. NPK fertilizer at a biochar concentration of 15 t/ha, gave the best result in the soil's physical and chemical properties and is recommended for rice production.