ABSTRACT

Cowpea is known by several names; southern pea and blackeyed pea in USA, beans in Nigeria, niebe in Francophone Africa, cowgram in India and kacang in Indonesia and Malaysia. Cowpea is the second most important grain legume in the lowland tropics after groundnut. Cowpea is well adapted to a wide range of soils, but cannot tolerate waterlogging. In Africa, cowpea is generally intercropped with sorghum and millets and to some extent also with maize, cassava, yams, cotton and vegetables. Very little information is available on mineral nutrition of cowpea in different regions. However, since cowpea is grown mainly by subsistence farmers as an intercrop, fertilizers are usually not used for the crop. Nutrient uptake by cowpea at different growth stages has received attention. Since most of the soils where cowpea is grown are generally very sandy with low effective cation exchange capacity and low moisture holding capacity, animal manure should be an excellent source of nutrients for correcting deficiencies.