Cassava is an important tropical root crop with versatile uses in food, feed, green energy and industrial sectors. It is grown mostly for food in Sub-Saharan Africa, food and other uses in Latin America and feed and other uses in Asia. The current global level of productivity of about 12 t/ha is only 12% of its potential productivity. Major reasons for the wide yield gap are lack of scientific nutrient management and unbalanced crop nutrition. In this review, we update the gap in cassava productivity, soil requirements, nutrient requirements and evolution of fertilizer recommendations and its impact on bridging the yield gap. Research work on mineral nutrition of cassava, especially in Asia and Latin America is aplenty. Among the major nutrients, cassava removes large quantity of potassium along with the harvested produce compared to the other nutrients. The range of critical levels of P and K reported for cassava was lower than the corresponding values reported for most of the crops, which shows its adaptability to grow and yield under poor soil fertility conditions. Studies on nutrient requirements of cassava showed that the N:P:K uptake ratio in total plant dry matter was 6.2:1:6.6. The total N, P and K uptake requirements for producing one ton of fresh cassava tuber ranged from 2.9 to 6.9 kg for N, 0.68 to 1.3 kg for P and 3.9 to 7.9kg for K. Large variations in blanket NPK recommendations could be observed among different countries. An attempt to compare inorganic nutrient management with organic nutrition on growth, yield, quality and soil properties is also made. Presently, more knowledge-intensive and computer simulation model-based site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) using models such as quantitative evaluation of fertility of tropical soils (QUEFTS) has proved to be a better alternative in reducing the yield gap of cassava in India and some West African countries. More basic knowledge need to be emanated from further research for developing field level nutrient recommendations under changing climate, especially drought. Development of a cassava SSNM network (CSN), analysis and interpretation of already existing data of different national and international research institutes and generation of required additional field data will help to further improve the SSNM technology and its wider application for precision nutrient management, combating wide spread nutrient disorders and enabling better yields among cassava growing countries across the globe.
