L entil (Lens culinaris Medik.), one of the classic founder crops is an annual, herbaceous selfpollinating grain legume grown in winter-season belonging to subfamily Papilionoideae of family Fabaceae/Leguminosae (Schaefer et al., 2012). Western Asia is the place where cultivated lentil (2n=14) is assumed to have been first originated and domesticated. Later, it spread quickly to Africa, southern and central Europe, the Mediterranean basin, and Indian subcontinents (Matny, 2015). Seven taxa systematized into four species were described in the most recent classification, namely L. culinaris ssp. culinaris, L. culinaris ssp. tomentosus, L. culinaris ssp. orientalis, L. culinaris ssp. odemensis, L. ervoides, L. lamottei, and L. nigricans (Wong et al., 2015). They are rich in proteins, minerals, prebiotics, carbohydrates, cholesterol lowering soluble fibers, and are naturally low in phytic acid so often stated as poor's man meat for the lower economic class. Aside from nutritional properties, lentil is important for the dryland cropping system in rotation to cereals because of their N-fixing capacity. Also, its crop residues can be used as feed for animals (Gupta et al., 2013;Subedi et al., 2014). The total cultivated area of lentil is estimated at around 6.10 million hectares with annual production and productivity of 6.33 million tons and 1.04 mt/ha, respectively in the world.