Cowpea (Lobia)

Water

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

Needs about 240 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 0 mm it can use in a normal year, and 0 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):

• Oct 36 °C / 19 °C
• Nov 30 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 25 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 22 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)

Nights in December can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.

Soil

Soil for Cowpea (Lobia): 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: nitrogen, sulphur and boron.

• The pH here suits it.
• Many fields here are short of phosphorus, which it needs a lot.
• Most fields here are short of organic carbon.
• 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 (January–February 2026): about ₹4,663 a quintal at mandis in your district.

This week: about ₹10,000 a quintal, the middle of 2 mandis in your district (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.