Chickpea is the worldâ€™s third most important food legume next to bean and soybean. Ethiopia isrnthe largest producer of chickpea in Africa. However, chickpea production is very low due to poorrnsoil fertility, poor nodulation and lack of inoculation with effective rhizobia. Although breedingrnfor improved cultivar for better production and disease resistance has been undertaken for quite arnlong time in the country, there was limited research on selection of effective and competitivernchickpea rhizobia for inoculant production to fully realize the benefits of biological nitrogenrnfixation. In this study, soil and nodule samples were collected from 60 sampling sites fromrnchickpea growing areas of the eastern, southeastern and southern parts of the country to collectrn39 root nodule bacteria. Based upon presumptive and definitive (authentication tests), only 23rnisolates (59%) were root nodule bacteria. Out of the authenticated rhizobia, 14 isolates (61%)rnwere categorized as either highly effective (17%) and effective (44%) with shoot dry matterrnaccumulation of 80-100% and 50-80% in relation to the nitrogen-fertilized control plants,rnrespectively. The inoculated plants showed diversity in nodule number, nodule dry weight andrnshoot dry weight. Accordingly, the isolates induced 14-62 nodules/plant with nodule dry weightrnof 20-53.3 mg/pt; and shoot dry matter of 250-417mg/Pt, respectively. The isolates were fastrngrowing and acid producing rhizobia with growth rate of 1-2.8 hr, and changed the YEMA-BTBrnmedium into yellow that can be tentatively grouped into the genus Mesorhizobium. They failedrnto solubilize inorganic phosphate on Pikovskayaâ€™s medium. The isolates were also screened inrnvitro for their nutritional versatility and eco-physiological tolerance for preliminary taxonomicrnscreening and as markers for selection of ecologically competent isolates for inoculation study inrnthe field. Accordingly, the isolates utilized most of the tested carbohydrates and amino acidsrnexcept lactose and glycine. The chickpea rhizobia, with few exceptions were tolerant tornmoderately acidic and near neutral pH (pH 6.5-8.0), relatively salt tolerant (1-3% NaCl) andrnmildly temperature resistant (10-30oC). Most of the isolates were sensitive to the antibioticsrnchloramphenicol and Penicillin G, to heavy metals Hg and Cu. However they showed inherentrnresistance to Bacitracine, gentamycine, Al and Mn. Based on the combined pattern of nutritionalrnand ecological tolerance with symbiotic effectiveness, isolates EIARCP7, EIARCP13,rnEIARCP8, EIARCP10, EIARCP11, and EIARCP18 combined the best match of high symbioticrneffectiveness with a wide range of resistance to eco-physiological stresses under laboratoryrnconditions and may qualify to be potential candidates for a field trial in the future.