The essay had as purpose to analyze physiological responses in common and cowpea bean cultivars submitted to water stress to indicate that one with bigger possibilities of adaptation for the plantation on the arid regions in Sergipe. For this, the study was divided in two stages. The first one consisted in a briefing diagnostic concerning the beans production in Poço Verde city, the major producer of beans in the State, verifying the main characteristics and difficulties of the culture. The diagnosis was carried through local visits and interviews directed to the beans producers of the city. The second stage was centered in ecophysiological, biochemists and phenological analyses carried in Vigna unguiculata L. (´Marataoã´and Gurguéia ) ...