Cowpea (Lobia)

Water

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

Needs about 250 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 90 mm it can use in a normal year (50 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 190 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):

• Oct 26 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
• Nov 26 °C / 18 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 26 °C / 16 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 27 °C / 16 °C (outside its best range)

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

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

Not in the score: nitrogen.

• The pH here suits it.

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

Money

Yield: about 1.7 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹6,612 a quintal across mandis in your state.

This week: about ₹8,435 a quintal, the middle of 7 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹4,000 a season after 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.