Background: Ethiopia is one of the largest chickpeas producing countries in the world and ranks first in Africa. However, the yield of the crop is low as compared to the potential of the crop to produce up to 5.5 tons ha-1. The scarcity of high-quality seed and the poor fertility of the soil are major obstacles to production of chickpea. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of seed inoculation with Rhizobium strains on seed quality of chickpea varieties.
Methods: Four varieties of chickpea viz., Eshete, Dimtu, Teketay and Local were inoculated with three Rhizobium strains (Cp11, Cp17, Cp41) and one control arranged in factorial combinations were evaluated in a completely randomized design with four replications.
Results: The interaction of variety and Rhizobium strain had a significant effect on the percentage of normal seedlings germination, seedlings shoot length, seedlings root length and seedlings vigour index one. The main factors variety and Rhizobium strain significantly influenced seedlings dry weight and seedlings vigour index two, and speed of germination was significantly influenced by variety.
Conclusion: The current study concluded that chickpea variety inoculated with Cp17 Rhizobium strain produced the highest seed quality seeds, thus, it is suggested to consider the variety and Rhizobium strain to produce high yield and quality seeds in the study area.
chickpea, Rhizobium, seed, seedlings germination, vigour index
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