Cowpea (Lobia)

Water

Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 290 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 30 mm it can use in a normal year (10 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 180 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 33 °C / 22 °C
• Nov 31 °C / 18 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 30 °C / 15 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 31 °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).

Not in the score: zinc, iron, copper and manganese.

• 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.

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

Money

Yield: about 3.5 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).

On rain alone it gets about 72% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 72% of this yield.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹6,523 a quintal across mandis in your state.

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

Prices are usually best in January.

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.