Plant · P-075

Pigeon Pea

Cajanus cajan

Pigeon pea is a fast, heavy nitrogen fixer usually grown as a summer annual, fixing 40-97 kg of nitrogen per hectare (up to 235 in Florida) while yielding dried dal, green peas, chop-and-drop biomass and protein-rich fodder from one plant. It thrives in extreme summer heat on as little as 250-375 mm of rain through a deep taproot and tolerates alkaline clay, reaching first harvest in about 140 days from a late-spring sowing. It is frost-killed and cannot take shade, and both the leaf and raw seed carry anti-nutrients that must be cooked out before feeding pigs or poultry.