Author(s):
Fabab bean is the most important grain legume in Ethiopia in terms of area, production source of protein and as rotation of crop ameliorating soil fertility, oil production as well as for soil fertility improvement by fixation of nitrogen. The benefits by the use of Rhizobium inoculants show that a quite good deal of money can be saved by marginal farmers by using quality tested inoculants on the farm. Rhizobia inoculation to seeds is well studied and exploitation of this beneficial nitrogen fixing root nodule symbiosis represents a hallmark of successfully applied agricultural microbiology. So this study was aimed to study types of strain for better production faba bean at the study area. This experiment was conducted in two consecutive cropping season of the area with the objective of evaluating commercial strains with and without inorganic fertilizer and consisted of eight treatments. The experiment was laid out in complete randomized block design (CRBD) with replications three times. The experiments analysis of variance indicated that there was significant difference (P < 0.05) among treatments in nodules weight and biomass but, there was no significant difference in plant height and grain yield of faba bean. This may be due to soil acidity; accordingly, the experiment result indicated that the highest number of nodules and nodule weight plant-1 recorded by treatment 8 and 6 than un inoculated treatment plots. However, the highest biomass and grain yields were recorded by treatment 5(EAL110). Therefore, EAL110 rhizobium strains was found to be the most suitable commercial rhizobial inoculants for fababean production and yield improvement with supportive of chemical fertilizer in the study area, therefore further study and check-up is needed by using lime for amelioration of soil acidity.
