Harnessing Mesorhizobial inoculants on the grain legume Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Ethiopia and contributions to promoting plant growth: Review

Chickpea is an important legume that serves as a vital source of nutrition in many regions of Ethiopia and sustain cropping system productivity due to its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Legumes such as chickpea possess seeds with high protein content therefore, require high supply of nitrogen. To realize this requirement, the crop embraces nodule on its root where bacteria of the genus Mesorhizobium live with a specific function of converting the atmospheric nitrogen into plant available form called biological nitrogen fixation. However, the potential of the crop to accomplished the current demand of nitrogen for poor soils is limited by its association with symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria, poor understanding of the relationship between strain diversity and symbiotic performance. Therefore, the present review will be used as a baseline to understand Ethiopian chickpea Mesorhizobium genetic resources for better symbiotic nitrogen fixation in chickpea. Moreover, it allows to supporting research efforts to select efficient rhizobial inoculants in nutrient management for increasing the production and productivity of chickpea as well as maintaining soil health and to solve the future problems.