✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Warm-season legume · Underground pulse

Bambara Groundnut

Vigna subterranea · Leguminosae

Bambara Groundnut is a warm-temperate herbaceous crop that grows best in the 19–30°C range with 750–1400 mm of rain, cropping over a 90–180-day season.

Optimal temp
19–30 °C
Annual rain
750–1400 mm
Max altitude
1,400 m
Cold limit
16°C
Growing cycle
90–180 d
Climate-fit land
28 % world

How it grows

Bambara Groundnut
Photo: Crop Trust · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bambara Groundnut
Photo: Yq2Yq · CC0
🫘 In pods, above ground

Bambara Groundnut grows in pods held above the ground on a bushy plant.

Where Earth's climate suits bambara groundnut

Global climatic suitability map for Bambara Groundnut
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
28% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production
FAOSTAT reports this crop only inside a broader category, so standalone country tonnage is not shown.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
India
Dem. Rep. Congo
Indonesia
Australia
Angola
Colombia
Tanzania
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 19–30°C · tolerates 16–38°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 750–1400 mm · tolerates 300–3000 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 4.3–7.0 · tolerates 4.3–7.0
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±30° · soil pH 4.3–7.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 90–180 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Cold & frost. A frost-sensitive crop: temperatures near or below freezing damage or kill it, so it is confined to frost-free seasons and warm climates.
  • Drought. Relatively drought-hardy, but a failed rainy season still cuts yield sharply where irrigation is absent.

Related crops