Influence of Enriched Cassava Peel Biochar on Growth, Yield and Proximate Composition of Sweet Potato

Sweet potato is one of the most important roots and tuber crop in terms of food security and its nutritional values. Over the years, the growth and yield of sweet potato is constrained by poor soil fertility and most farmers have adopted the use of inorganic fertilizers which has been known to acidify the soil. In recent years, farmers have increasingly adopted biochar as a targeted solution to mitigate this challenge, but due to its slow release of nutrients, it needs to enriched in order to increase the nutrients release to plant. Thus, this study is to evaluate the effect of enriched biochar on the growth, yield and proximate composition of sweet potato.This study was carried out at the NIHORT, Ibadan, Nigeria, where field experiment involved ten treatments; lime, NPK 15:15:15, compost and biochar sole, combined treatment combinations laid in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. There were a total of 30 plots with 6 m² per plot size and data were collected on growth and yield parameters. Treatments had no significant effect on the growth parameters. However, lime + biochar + compost gave higher tuber weight of 10 t/ha compared to other treatments applied. Also, the treatment combination; lime + biochar + compost increased the leaf nutrient concentrations of sweet potato. Further studies should be carried out to determine the residual effect of the enriched biochar on growth and yield of sweet potato.