Introduction

Like most developing countries in the world, agriculture is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. the northern part of the country due its soil type and rainfall pattern is notable for the production of cereals particularly maize.
however due to lack of good agricultural practices and heavy toils on the land, the soil isdiscovered to be no longer sustainable without fertilizer application be it chemical or organic.
fertilizer is one of the land augumenting inputs aimed at improving soil fertility or bringing back infra-marginal land into production. this is because it is made up of nutrients which are critical to increased productivity of crops. the most commonly use is the NPK. The principle behind the use of fertilizer particularly the NPK in maize production is to ensure that non of these nutrients is deficient as any soil containing all nutrirents for plant growth except one is said to be barren for all crops for which the deficient nutrient is critial.

Studies carried out in many parts of the country has shown that fertilizer application with adequate water supply have had a great impact on maize production in Nigeria. there are evidences of these on some Fadama sites and big irrigation scheme