Cowpea (Lobia)

Water

Rain falls about 3 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 280 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 0 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 150 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

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

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

• Nov 33 °C / 16 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 31 °C / 13 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 29 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 33 °C / 15 °C (outside its best range)

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

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

• The pH here suits it.
• Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
• Many fields here are short of sulphur, which it needs a lot.
• Most fields here are short of zinc.

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

Money

Yield: about 2.8 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹7,567 a quintal across mandis in your state.

This week: about ₹8,965 a quintal, the middle of 22 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Prices are usually best in October.

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.