Pigeon pea

Chonyi (mbalazi),Kamba (nzuu), Kikuyu (njugu), Swahili (mbaazi), Luo (obong)

Description

A shrub, usually 2 - 3 m tall with dense and narrow or loose crown. Branches erect, drooping when with fruit.

Bark: Green or dark red with pale longitudinal lines.Leaves:Each with 3 leaflets covered with glands. Upper surface soft, dark green. Paler and with prominent veins beneath.

Flowers: In terminal or axillary inflorescences, yellow to dark red (standard with reddish brown lines).Fruits: Pods to 10 cm long ,straight or slightly curved with hairy glandular surface, green, often streaked red, dark brown or purplish black. Seeds up to 9 per pond, green, turning cream or light brown on drying.

Cultivated in tropical Africa. Cultivated in many parts of Kenya, especially Muranga, Embu, Meru, Kitui and Makueni district.Also grown in West pokot, Nyanza.

Uses

Food: Peas may be mashed with other foods like potatoes, cooked with maize, or made into stew (mboga) and eaten along with ugali.Peas are boiled, mashed and rolled into balls or boiled with sorghum (Luo). Among the kikuyu, pigeons peas were important food during ceremonies like circumcision.Click here to learn how to prepare and enjoy pigeon peas

Others

After harvesting the stalks are cut and used as firewood (rather poor quality, burns fast but an important fuel during wet planting seasons). A good plant for crop rotation or inter cropping. An important fodder plant during the dry season after crop harvest. The dry leaves and pod remains are important for donkeys, cattle and goats.

Commercial

Sold in various forms: fresh pods, green peas without pods and dry peas mainly in central & coastal parts of Kenya & in Nairobi.

Remarks

Pigeon pea is a hardy crop and preferred food. It may be inter cropped with deeply rooted crops such as cow peas (the creeping type), cassava, pumpkins, gourds, & sweet potato. Crops e.g. maize, beans , millet, sorghum & quick-maturing types of cow peas are adversely affected. Its potential in the food industry isn't yet fully exploited. Pests are a major problem threatening its cultivation.

The origin of this important crop is still subject of contention. It's believed to be of African origin. There are only 2 species in this genus; the other, C. kerstingii Harms, grows wild in West Africa and hence the assumption that the pigeon pea is probably of African origin.