Topic of research: Exploration of the potential benefits of rhizobia inoculation with cowpea in Nigeria.

Summary: Cowpea is a promiscous legume that can nodulate with indigenous rhizobia in the soil, but sometimes these indigenous rhizobia have been found to be few or not effective in fixing enough nitrogen for the crop. In Nigeria, local farmers utilize inorganic fertilizers to augement the nitrogen level of the soil which causes adverse negative effect on the climate. Therefore, since cowpea can fix its own nitrogen by the process of biological nitrogen fixation with rhizobia, therefore there is an urgent need to identify effective indigenous rhizobia from soils where cowpea can be planted. These are then isolated and produced in form of inoculants to aid in the cultivation and increase in yield of cowpea. The study will be divided into three sections, development of molecular markers from genic sequences, check the effect of number of indigenous rhizobia on the response of cowpea to elite rhizobia strain, ascertain if the diversity of indigenous rhizobia in soil affect the effectiveness and inoculation response of rhizobia strain.