The Influence of Recommended Agronomic Practices Irrigation Supplementation, and Compost FYM Fertilization on Growth, Productivity and Cassava Yield Response in Mara and Coast Regions

Abstract: Throughout the tropics and subtropics cassava is grown on a wide range of soils, the main limitation being that the soi1has to be reasonably well drained Howeler, (2021). Cassava is important for both small-scale farmers and larger-scale plantations due to its low requirement for nutrients, ability to tolerate dry conditions and easy low-cost propagation. The crops’ ability to tolerate drought and grow on poor marginal soils makes it a good crop for food security and also these characteristics are highly valuable in the face of climate variability (Awa and Tumanteh, 2001). The crop is not capital intensive as it requires minimal care and supervision, thus, it is generally still cultivated by small scale farmers as a subsistence crop in a diverse range of agricultural and food systems El-Sharkawy, (2003). Field experiments were conducted for two seasons and single season 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 under rainfed condition as a control and irrigation supplementation in the subsequent cropping season to determine the influence of agronomic practices compost FYM + Fertilizers + Irrigation supplementation on growth, productivity and yield performance. The experiments were laid out in a RCBD design with three (3) blocks and four (4) replications in different location sites. The study took place in Mara and Coastal regions, at Nyasirori Butiama district and Nyegina and Busungu-Majita Musoma rural district and Msoga Bagamoyo Coast region between October, 2021 and August, 2023. At each location site eight (8) cassava varieties and eight (8) agronomic practice treatments were tested among them involved compost FYM + Fertilizers + Irrigation supplementation separately at three different application rates 100 kg, 60, kg and 20 kg per row. Incorporated with the soil prior planting of cassava seed materials, similarly the irrigation supplementation was done also with three different regimes; the control as rainfed, irrigation supplementation up to vegetative of stage five (5) months and irrigation supplementation up to maturity stage of nine (9) months. Data on cassava growth, productivity and yield performance such as plant height (PH), plant canopy (PC) number of branches (NBR), leaf area size shape and abnormality (LSSA), crop performance (CP) and cassava root yield (RYID) and vegetative yield (VEGYID) were collected for assessment of cassava growth and productivity performance and data on number of tubers per plant, weight of cassava root fresh (RYID) and stem vegetative weight biomass was recorded for assessment of cassava yields. The results found that there was significant influence of agronomic practice treatment particularly the application of compost FYM + solely or in combination with irrigation supplementation. Likewise, the growth stage and variety effects similarly, showed significantly different at P