What are the uses of cowpea?
Uses for cowpeas:
- The leaves and growth points can be picked and used as a vegetable dish.
- The leaves can be dried and used as a meat substitute.
- The green seeds are sometimes roasted like peanuts and these are then used as a substitute for coffee.
- Ground dried seeds mixed with onions and spices can be fried in oil.
Which fertilizer is best for cowpea?
If too much nitrogen fertilizer is used, the plant will grow luxuriantly with poor grain yield. Cowpea requires more phosphorus than nitrogen in the form of single super phosphate or SUPA (Nkaa et al., 2014).
What is the economic importance of cowpea?
Cowpea’s high protein content, its adaptability to different types of soil and intercropping systems, its resistance to drought, and its ability to improve soil fertility and prevent erosion makes it an important economic crop in many developing regions.
What is the maturity period of cowpea?
about 90-125 days
Green pods for use as vegetable can be harvested 45 – 90 days after sowing depending on the variety. For grains, the crop can be harvested in about 90-125 days after sowing when pods are fully matured.
What are the characteristics of cowpea?
Cowpeas are typically climbing or trailing vines that bear compound leaves with three leaflets. The white, purple, or pale-yellow flowers usually grow in pairs or threes at the ends of long stalks. The pods are long and cylindrical and can grow 20–30 cm (8–12 inches) long, depending on the cultivar.
What are the benefits of cowpeas leaves?
Cowpea leaves are known to be rich in proteins, vitamins such as provitamin A, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, and vitamin C, and minerals, such as calcium, phosphorus, and iron (Kirakou, 2014; Xiong et al., 2016).
What are the major challenges in cowpea production?
Drought and heat stresses and poor soil fertility. Drought and heat stresses, as well as poor soil fertility, are the major abiotic factors affecting cowpea production and productivity in SSA.
What is soil requirement of cowpea?
Select a well-drained sandy loam soil for rainfed cowpea, and inland depressions or along the shores of a lake for a dry season crop using residual moisture. Cowpea does not tolerate excessively wet conditions or waterlogging and should not be grown on poorly drained soil.
Why are they called cowpeas?
The first written reference of the word ‘cowpea’ appeared in 1798 in the United States. The name was most likely acquired due to their use as a fodder crop for cows. Black-eyed pea, a common name used for the unguiculata cultivar group, describes the presence of a distinctive black spot at the hilum of the seed.
How is cowpea processed?
Steeping, dehulling, milling, cooking, whipping, deep-frying, and roasting are the main processing operations, while fermentation and germination are not applied. The use of softeners (kanwu, bicarbonate) is a common way to reduce the cooking time.
Why are cowpeas called cowpeas?
What are the different types of cowpeas?
Yardlong beanCatjangDixie Lee peaVigna unguiculata subsp. ste…
Black-eyed pea/Lower classifications
Is cowpeas rich in protein?
Cowpea is a nutritious food source, rich in protein, digestible and nondigestible carbohydrates, and potassium with very low lipids and sodium content. Cowpeas also contain a number of essential amino acids, and polyphenols with antioxidant activity.
Is cowpea a protein or carbohydrate?
protein
Abstract. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a legume consumed as a high‐quality plant protein source in many parts of the world. High protein and carbohydrate contents with relatively low fat content and complementary amino acid pattern to that of cereal grains make cowpea an important nutritional food in the human diet.
Which country is the highest producer of cowpea?
Nigeria
Africa accounts for 84% of grain production; Nigeria being the largest cowpea producer in the world and accounts for over 2.5 million tons of grain production from an estimated 4.9 million ha.
What are the agronomic practices of cowpea?
Agronomic Practices. Cowpea is grown on a wide range of soil types, from sandy to clay loam with moderate amounts of soil water and salinity. The optimum soil pH ranges from 5.5 to 6.5. In the US, the early planting season for cowpea begins in late spring, around April, when the soil is warm.
What is the climatic and soil requirement of cowpea?
What is the scientific name of cowpeas?
Vigna unguiculataBlack-eyed pea / Scientific name
What is the percentage of protein in cowpea?
The protein content ranged from 25.38% to 27.56% with no significant difference (P < 0.05) between the improved varieties and the local variety, ash content ranged between 3.47 and 6.84%, crude fiber was between 5.81 and 15.08%, and carbohydrate ranged from 45.64 to 57.12%.
What is the common name of cowpea?
black-eyed pea
cowpea, (Vigna unguiculata), also called black-eyed pea or southern pea, annual plant within the pea family (Fabaceae) grown for its edible legumes.
Is cowpea a carbohydrate or protein?
Abstract. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a legume consumed as a high‐quality plant protein source in many parts of the world. High protein and carbohydrate contents with relatively low fat content and complementary amino acid pattern to that of cereal grains make cowpea an important nutritional food in the human diet.
Is cowpea a source of protein?
What is the major challenges in cowpea production?
What is the method of propagation in cowpea?
Cowpea is propagated through seeds, this increases the waiting period as the plant has to complete its juvenile phase before flowering. Asexual propagation approach was employed on cowpea using the vine cuttings of flowering plants.
What are the main types of cowpea?
All cultivated cowpeas are found within the universally accepted V. unguiculata subspecies unguiculata classification, which is then commonly divided into four cultivar groups: unguiculata, biflora, sesquipedalis, and textilis.