Cowpea (Lobia)

Water

Rain is enough in a normal year. Keep one irrigation ready for a dry year.

Needs about 100 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 110 mm it can use in a normal year (80 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 0 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Heavy rain here can waterlog it. Grow it on raised beds or land that drains well.

Temperature

Grows best at 25–35 °C on average, and survives 15–40 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

• Nov 17 °C / 3 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 11 °C / -1 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 8 °C / -2 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 11 °C / 1 °C (outside its best range)

Nights in November can bring frost while the plants are young. Sow a little later, or cover the seedlings on cold nights.

Soil

Soil for Cowpea (Lobia): 9 out of 10 (good).

• The pH here suits it.
• Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
• Most fields here are short of boron.

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

Money

Yield: about 0.9 quintals an acre here (older figures, 2016-17).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹6,386 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹8,965 a quintal, the middle of 22 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹2,000 a season at typical costs.

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹10,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.