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How to grow Pigeon pea
Cajanus cajan · Fabaceae
Photo: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare (India) · GODL-India
Pigeon pea (red gram) is a hardy, woody bush bean that sends a taproot two metres deep, so it keeps growing and podding long after other crops burn off in the dry. It feeds itself with nitrogen pulled from the air, so it asks for very little fertiliser and leaves the soil richer for the next crop. It is slow to get going but rewards patience: a short-duration type gives one grain harvest in about 3–5 months, while a tall long-duration type can be cut back after harvest and ratooned — coming again from the same roots for two to five years. The dry peas store and sell as red gram, the green peas cook fresh, and the woody stems make firewood.
Nanditha Gogate, WELL Labs · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Adoscam · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Days to maturity
- 90–300 days
- Row spacing
- 75 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 30 cm
- Sowing depth
- 3–5 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.
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Other names for Pigeon pea
pigeon pea · red gram · Congo pea · pois d'Angole · pois cajan · ambrevade · waken-turawa · fiofio · nandolo · guandu · feijão-guandu · mbaazi · otili
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 pigeon pea, stage by stage
Your pigeon pea crop, step by step — from choosing wilt-beating seed and a free-draining field, through the slow early weeks when weeds do the most harm, to guarding the flowers and pods from borers and storing the grain beetle-free — with a second, ratoon crop still to come.
- Get your field and seed ready
- Sow and get a full stand
- Weed early — the crop's slowest, weakest weeks
- Flowering — protect the pods-to-be
- Podding and pod-fill — guard the grain
- Harvest (and set up a ratoon)
- Dry and store — beat the bruchid
22 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for pigeon pea — 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 pigeon pea
4 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your pigeon pea 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 pigeon pea take to grow?
Pigeon pea takes about 90–300 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for pigeon pea?
Space pigeon pea rows about 75 cm apart, with roughly 30 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should pigeon pea be planted?
Sow pigeon pea at about 3–5 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack pigeon pea?
The ones covered in this guide are Bollworm complex, Bruchids (bean and cowpea weevils), Fusarium wilt. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow pigeon pea 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.
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