Divisi
How to grow Cowpea
Vigna unguiculata · Fabaceae
Photo: Toby Hudson · CC BY-SA 3.0
Cowpea (nyemba, kunde, niébé, black-eyed pea) is a tough, drought-beating legume for warm country. Give it a little phosphorus and it feeds itself — friendly bacteria on its roots pull nitrogen from the air, so it needs almost no nitrogen fertiliser and even leaves the soil richer for the next crop. One planting gives you three harvests: tender leaves to eat as relish from just two weeks, green pods soon after flowering, and dry grain — the black-eyed pea — at the end. It handles heat and dry spells better than almost any other pulse, but it lives or dies by two things: guarding the flowers and young pods from insects, and keeping the storage weevil out of the dry grain.
Prahlad balaji · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Shikoha Tautiko · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Days to maturity
- 60–120 days
- Row spacing
- 75 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 25 cm
- Sowing depth
- 2.5–3.8 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will cowpea actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Cowpea
cowpea · black-eyed pea · southern pea · crowder pea · niébé · wake · agwa · feijão-frade · nyemba · nawa · kunde · ewa · indumba
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing cowpea, stage by stage
Your cowpea season, step by step — plant early into warm soil, feed the roots with phosphorus and let the plant make its own nitrogen, guard the flowers and pods through the make-or-break spray window, then dry and store the grain so the weevil can't touch it.
- Get your field and inputs ready
- Plant and set your stand
- Grow the frame and check the roots feed themselves
- Protect the flowers — the make-or-break window
- Fill the pods and beat the pod bugs
- Harvest — grain, and leaves along the way
- Dry hard and store weevil-proof
17 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for cowpea — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack cowpea
13 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your cowpea right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does cowpea take to grow?
Cowpea takes about 60–120 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for cowpea?
Space cowpea rows about 75 cm apart, with roughly 25 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should cowpea be planted?
Sow cowpea at about 2.5–3.8 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack cowpea?
The ones covered in this guide are Aphids, Asian soybean rust, Bacterial blight. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
More reading
Grow cowpea with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first