Purpose <p>Our aim was to assess the soil properties, plant performance, and microbial gene associated with <i>Z. mays</i> as influenced by cellulose-based hydrogel and AMF inoculation in the Brazil’s Legal Amazon.</p> Methods <p>We evaluated the soil bulk density, soil porosity, geometric mean diameter (GMD), soil available water (SAW), soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), cation exchangeable capacity (CEC), soil organic carbon (SOC), organic acids, plant dry biomass, yield, root density, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial gene abundance, and dsDNA content in Acrisols cropped to maize cultivar “BRS-3042”.</p> Results <p>The highest values of soil porosity (49.21 m³ m^− 3), GMD (2.71 0.11&#xa0;mm), SAW(1.23&#xa0;g kg^− 1), EC (0.90 0.03 dS m^− 1), CEC (45.89 mmol_c kg^− 1), SOC (10.9 mg g^− 1), oxalic acid (45.33 1.29 µmol kg^− 1), malic acid (4.11 µmol kg^− 1), plant dry biomass (3.9 t ha^− 1), yield (1.78 t ha^− 1), root density (0.45 0.03&#xa0;g cm^− 3), MBC (256.02&#xa0;µg g^− 1 soil), Bacteria gene abundance (65.39 × 10⁸ g^− 1 soil), Fungi gene abundance (2.01 × 10⁸ g^− 1 soil), Archaea gene abundance (1.60 × 10⁸ g^− 1 soil), and dsDNA content (20.91&#xa0;µg g^− 1 soil) were found in the plots with hydrogel and AMF inoculation.</p> Conclusions <p>Our findings suggest that the use of hydrogel combined with AMF inoculation positively affected the Acrisols by increasing its physical structure and fertility. Additionally, both treatments showed potential to: (i) increase soil C sequestration in the Brazil’s Legal Amazon; (ii) mitigate climate change in areas covered by Amazon dark earth; and (iii) preserve sustainable agroecosystem for food production in the Amazon Forest Biome.</p>