Cowpea is a food legume widely used in tropic and sub-tropic countries of Africa. Drought stress is one of the major constraints in cowpea production. Its damages on cowpea agronomic performance is function of plants developmental stage. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of seedling and flowering stages drought stress on cowpea production. Treatments consisted of drought stress at three levels (drought at seedling stage (DS), drought at flowering stage (DF) and the control) and four cowpea varieties (Gorom local, Moussa local, KVx396-4-5-2D and Tiligre). The trial was conducted using a split-plot design replicated three times. Growth and yield data were collected and submitted to an analysis of variance using JMP Pro 16 software. Means were separated using Student
Newman Keuhl’s test. The results show that during both seasons and combined, the control gave the highest number of pods per plant, weight of pods per plant, number of grains per pod and grain yield per hectare, except for above ground biomass for which higher averages were registered from the seedling stage drought stress conditions.The lowest yield and yield attributes were consistently recorded when plants subjected to drought stress at flowering stage. Drought at flowering stage of cowpea development drastically affects both grain and haulm yields. Drought at seedling stage of cowpea development when followed by a re-irrigation is without major negatives impact on cowpea
agronomical performance.

Cowpea, drought stress, variety, yield