ABSTRACT
ABHIJIT SAHA1*, SONALI BISWAS2, DULAL CHANDRA ROY3, and UTPAL GIRI1
1Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Lembucherra 799210, Tripura, India
2Department of Agronomy, BCKV, Mohanpur 741252, Nadia, West Bengal, India
3Department of ILFC, WBUAFS, Mohanpur 741252, Nadia, West Bengal, India
*Corresponding author. E-mail: abhijitsaha80@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Cowpea is most potential legume for fodder production, crucial for crop-livestock integration, enrichment of soil, conservation of soil moisture, and preventing soil erosion. Fodder cowpea is a fodder legume inherently more tolerant to drought than other fodder legumes. Cowpea is a quick-growing crop, which produces tremendous quantity of bulk mass in short span of time; and therefore, is esteemed as valuable catch crop or fodder, green manure, grains, or vegetable. The green fodder yield of 350-400 quintals/ha are obtained from multicut types, and about 250-300 quintals/ha from single cut types 50 quintals/ha of dry matter yield can be achievable. It has about 16% crude protein and 20% crude fiber. Cowpea contains some antinutritional factors which create some physiological disorders on consumption. Some of them are protease inhibitors, antivitamins, phytase, saponins, amylase inhibitors, tannins, aflatoxins, etc.
