Biochar is a sustainable approach to greening the environment with its unique ability to improve soil fertility, increase crop yields, carbon sequestration, and retain soil moisture. Although multiple studies have reported on the benefits of biochar as an amendment on agricultural lands, less is known about its effects of palm kernel shell biochar (PKSB) on tropical soil in Malaysia under field condition. Therefore, a 3-month field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects palm kernel shell (PKSB) biochars with reduced rate of NPK fertilizer on maize growth, soil fertility and nutrients uptake. 20 t ha-1 of biochar was added to a maize field with four treatments (control, NPK Fertilizer (F), PKSB and FPKSB) and four replications were arranged in randomized block design (RBD). Biochar amendment has increased the biomass by 1.01 t ha-1 for FPKSB as compared to treatments with F only. Available P was the highest in combined treatment plot as the acidity of soil is lowered which resulted in improved cation exchange capacity (CEC) and elevated the bioavailability of P by 40 %. Biochar application has also increased macronutrient uptake compared to F only i.e. P uptake and K uptake increased significantly 41.94 kg/ha and 31.4 kg/ha for FPKSB, respectively compared to individual F application. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) confirmed that P and K uptake were closely related to the biomass yield, whereas soil CEC could be influenced by the soil pH and available P.