Chickling pea. (Lathyrus sativus L.) This crop is chiefly cultivated for fodder. Poor people use the grain as pulse, particularly in times of security. The unripe pods are occasionally used as a green vegetable. The grain and other plant parts contain neurotoxin, BOAA, which has been shown to be the inciting agent of lathyrism, a paralysis of the lower limbs, endemic in some regions of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Ill-effects are noticed when lathyrus forms a significant part of the diet over a considerable period. Steeping the pulse overnight in water and rejecting the water effectively detoxifies the pulse. Parboiling has also the same effect. A variety ('P24') has become available. It has a very low BOAA content and, therefore, is not likely to cause lathyrism.

The pulse is grown on about 1.5 million hectares, particularly in West Bengal, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Middle Gujarat and some parts of Deccan.

Soil and Season. It is a cold weather drop which thrives best on low-lying water-retentive heavy soils. Deep black soils produce excellent crops. The crop is not injured much by the cracking of black soils. Being hardy, it can be grown on lands which are suited to no other crop. It is grown either as the sole crop of the year or as a second crop after paddy, being often sown as an utera crop in standing paddy. Sown in September-October, it is harvested in February or March.

Cultivation. The crop is frequently grown on land which might have remained submerged in water for a part of the kharif season. Two or three ploughings are soon given after the rains to secure a fairly clean seedbed. The seed is sown broadcast, in rows, using 10 to 35 kg per hectare, the broadcast crop requiring higher seed rate. When growing utera after paddy, the seed is broadcast in the standing cereal crop a few days before harvesting. One or two hand-weedings are beneficial.

The crop, when ready, is cut with a sickle, dried on the threshing floor for a week or so, and threshed by trampling it with bullocks. The average yield of grain per hectare is 300 to 400 kg. Yields of 600 to 800 kg are not uncommon.

Varieties. Not much work has been done for improving this crop. However, a few varieties have been selected (particularly in Madhya Pradesh), such as 'No.9','Rewa-2', 'No.11', 'T-2-12'. As a result of screening for a low neurotoxin content, a variety, 'P24', has been developed at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. It has a very low content of this toxin.

Cowpea {Vigna sinensis (L.)}. Cowpea is used as a fodder, vegetable, a pulse and a green manure crop. It is grown all over India, more particularly in the central and peninsular regions, though on a limited area. It has considerable promise as an alternative pulse crop in the dry land farming.

Soil and climatic requirements
Cowpea is a tropical crop and prefers warm and humid season and grows well on a wide range of soils including poor soils with low pH. However, saline and alkali soils are not suitable. Although it is mostly grown as a rainfed crop, it is capable of withstanding high rainfall, but is less tolerant to waterlogging.

Sowing time
As a summer crop in northern India, the sowing of cowpea should be completed before mid-April. Sowing for kharif would be normally depend on the onset of the monsoon and this ranges from early June to the end of July.

Seeding technique
Depending upon whether the cultivar is compact, semi-spreading or spreading, seeds are sown @ 10 to 40 kg/ha and the rows are spaced at 30-90 cm. For grain types, the row-to-row distance should be maintained at 30 cm, and the plant-to-plant distance between 5 and 10 cm depending upon the plant type. The seed rate should be around 25 to 30 kg/ha for a sole crop.

Application of fertilizers
Starter dose of nitrogen @ 15 kg/ha along with 30 to 40 kg of P₂O₅/ha is considered, optimum. If the crop is grown consequent to a cereal or a commercial crop, the cowpea crop need not be fertilized as residual fertility would be enough to sustain the crop. Care should be taken that phosporous is placed 5 cm below or away from the seed.

Plant protection
Cowpea is attacked by pests, like leaf-miner, hairy-caterpillar, jassids, aphids, white-fly and galerucid beetles; and diseases, like Cercospora leafspot, bacterial leaf-spot, cowpea tip-necrosis, cowpea bean-mosiac and cowpea banding-mosiac virus etc.