{"id":29202,"date":"2025-01-05T02:05:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T20:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=29202"},"modified":"2025-04-09T01:17:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:47:15","slug":"cowpea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/cowpea\/","title":{"rendered":"Key facts about Cowpea"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Cowpea:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an annual plant within the pea family (Fabaceae).<\/li>\n<li>It is a <strong>leguminous crop<\/strong> having <strong>long trailing vines<\/strong> producing seeds of black, white, or red colour used widely in various food preparations.<\/li>\n<li>It <strong>originated<\/strong> and was domesticated <strong>in Southern Africa<\/strong> and was later moved to East and West Africa and Asia.<\/li>\n<li>It is also known as a <strong>black-eyed pea, southern pea,<\/strong> etc.<\/li>\n<li>Cowpeas are <strong>typically climbing <\/strong>or trailing vines that bear <strong>compound leaves<\/strong> with three leaflets.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>grains contain 25% protein<\/strong> and several <strong>vitamins and minerals.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>plant tolerates drought, <\/strong>performs well in a wide variety of soils, and, being a legume <strong>replenishes low-fertility soils when the roots are left to decay.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Well-drained loam or slightly heavy soil is best suited.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>In colder climates<\/strong> somewhat <strong>sandy soil is preferred<\/strong> as crops mature earlier in them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It is grown mainly by <strong>small-scale farmers in developing regions<\/strong> where it is <strong>often cultivated with other crops as it tolerates shade.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It also grows and covers the ground quickly, preventing erosion.<\/li>\n<li>The world&#8217;s <strong>largest production and consumption<\/strong> of cowpea is in <strong>West Africa<\/strong>, which accounts for more than 87% of world production and use.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nigeria<\/strong>, the <strong>largest producer and consumer<\/strong>, accounts for <strong>46% of production worldwide.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>In the Indian context<\/strong>, it is a <strong>minor pulse<\/strong> cultivated mainly in arid and <strong>semi-arid tracts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and West UP,<\/strong> along with considerable areas in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What are Vitamins?<\/h3>\n<p>These are a group of substances that are needed for normal cell function, growth, and development. There are 13 essential vitamins.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/technology\/science\/life-sprouts-in-space-says-isro-after-cowpea-seeds-germinate-9760434\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Life sprouts in space\u2019, says ISRO after cowpea seeds germinate<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cowpea  is an annual plant within the pea family (Fabaceae).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}