Abstract

---

Using different amendments to ameliorate chemically degraded soil would affect the soil nutrients in different forms and ways. It was based on this assumption that an incubation study was carried out at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, to investigate the effect of biochar and other amendments on some chemical properties of coastal plain sand in Umudike of Abia State. The study lasted for eighty four days and the treatments comprised of seven amendments namely: Control (no amendment), Biochar, Ash, Lime, Biochar + Poultry Manure, Ash + Poultry Manure and Lime + Poultry Manure. They were applied at a sole rate of 1.43g to 100g of soil. The treatments were replicated three times in a Completely Randomized Design. Soil pH, exchangeable acidity, available phosphorus, organic carbon and exchangeable calcium were determined fortnightly using the standard laboratory procedure. The result showed that applied Biochar + Poultry Manure gave the significantly (p<0.05) highest organic carbon value of 1.52% at the 12th week of incubation over the soil pre -treatment value of 0.06%. The pH value range of between 6.1-6.7 which is near neutral was given by the applied Biochar + Poultry Manure at the weeks of the incubation. The result also showed that soil exchangeable calcium positively correlated with soil pH. Biochar + Poultry Manure seems to have great potentials in improving the soil chemical properties. Further field investigation will be conducted for the verification of these results.

---