Cowpea (Lobia)

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 340 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 90 mm it can use in a normal year, and 50 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

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

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

• Jun 27 °C / 16 °C (outside its best range)
• Jul 28 °C / 17 °C (outside its best range)
• Aug 28 °C / 17 °C (outside its best range)
• Sep 25 °C / 13 °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.
• Most fields here are short of iron.
• Most fields here are short of manganese.

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 (September–October 2026): about ₹8,300 a quintal across India's mandis.

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

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹9,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.