Cowpea (Lobia)

Water

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

Needs about 270 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 70 mm it can use in a normal year (50 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 50 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 29 °C / 20 °C (outside its best range)
• Nov 28 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 28 °C / 17 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 29 °C / 17 °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.
• Most fields here are short of boron.

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

Money

Yield: about 1.2 quintals an acre here (district figures).

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 (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).

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.