Bajra (Pearl Millet)

A monsoon crop. Sow in Jun–Jul, harvest in Sep–Oct.

Check it on your land
Season
Kharif
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

94% of its area.
Ready in
85 days
about 3 months
Water
320–350 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
25–35 °C
0 °C survives 12–40 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Kharif 94% of its area
Today
J J A S O N D J F M A M
Sow Growing Harvest
The year starts in June, with the monsoon. Your district can shift a few weeks.

Sowing Growing Harvest

Will it grow on your land?

Darbhanga Bihar
Water
Season

Possible in Darbhanga, with effort

Bajra (Pearl Millet)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in June, harvest around September

This season's sowing time (June–July) is over.

Grown on 22 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.

₹8,000–₹13,000

per acre a season, before costs

At typical costs, from a loss of ₹3,000 to a profit of ₹1,000 an acre a season

  • Suits: Rain is enough
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain is enough, even in a dry year.

Needs about 290 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 470 mm it can use in a normal year, and 340 mm in a dry year.

Heavy rain here can waterlog it. Grow it on raised beds or land that drains well.

Temperature

Grows best at 25–35 °C on average, and survives 12–40 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

  • Jun 35 °C / 26 °C
  • Jul 33 °C / 26 °C
  • Aug 33 °C / 26 °C

Soil

Soil for Bajra (Pearl Millet): 9 out of 10 (good).

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.

Likes pH 6.5–8.0.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 4.5 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (September–October 2026): about ₹2,345 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹2,600 a quintal, the middle of 195 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹191 a season after typical costs.

Minimum support price: ₹2,900 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹1,340 2021
  2. ₹2,010 2022
  3. ₹2,190 2023
  4. ₹2,300 2024
  5. ₹2,270 2025

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹11,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). They are spent whatever the harvest.

How to make it work

  • Short of nitrogen Your soil is likely short of nitrogen.

    Add about a quarter more urea than the usual dose, in two or three splits. A pulse crop in rotation also adds nitrogen.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
28 kg
DAP
18 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Darbhanga

What it needs

Temperature

25–35 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 12–40 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

320–350 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Barmer Jodhpur Jalore Balotra Jaipur

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 9.

Soil

  • Takes a little salt
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen and zinc
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); ICAR-AICRP on Pearl Millet; FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for one acre

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

With irrigation

Urea nitrogen
57 kg about 1¼ bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
35 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag
MOP potash
27 kg about half a 50 kg bag

Rain-fed: urea 28 kg, DAP 18 kg an acre

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. If your soil card says a nutrient is low, add about a quarter more of it.

Watch out for

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra
  • Downy mildew (green ear)
    Disease

    Look for

    Yellow leaves with white down underneath; ears turn into leafy green growths.

    What to do first

    Grow a resistant hybrid, treat seed with metalaxyl and pull out sick plants. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Ergot
    Disease

    Look for

    Sticky honey-like drops on the ears, later hard black bodies in place of grain.

    What to do first

    Clean the seed by floating off the ergot bodies in salt water; sow early.

  • Shoot fly
    Pest

    Look for

    The central shoot dries out in young plants.

    What to do first

    Sow early with the first rains and use a little more seed.

What an acre earns

At India's average yield and a recent price, named below. Your land, water and mandi will differ.

Left an acre, a season

₹3,000

Yield India's average
6.1 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Sep–Oct 2026)
₹2,345 a quintal
= Income
₹14,400
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹11,400
= Left
₹3,000

This week bajra (pearl millet) sells at about ₹2,600 a quintal: India's middle price at 195 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹4,600 a season.

Sold at the support price (MSP, ₹2,900 a quintal) to government procurement, an acre would leave about ₹6,400 a season. Procurement isn't open everywhere: ask at your mandi or agriculture office.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹11,500 to ₹17,300 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹2,592 a quintal
Lowest
February, ₹1,979 a quintal
₹1,979
₹2,592
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Nov 2026).

Government minimum support price (MSP): ₹2,900 a quintal for 2026-27. Every crop's MSP

Latest prices near Darbhanga Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
1.8 crore acres
2024-25
Average yield
6.1 quintals an acre (1.5 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Barmer
Rajasthan
Best yield
Gir Somnath
14 quintals an acre

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

40% of India's bajra (pearl millet) area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Barmer Rajasthan 9.1% 17.2 lakh acres
  2. 2 Jalore Rajasthan 4.6% 8.6 lakh acres
  3. 3 Balotra Rajasthan 4.1% 7.7 lakh acres
  4. 4 Jaipur Rajasthan 3.8% 7.2 lakh acres
  5. 5 Banas Kantha Gujarat 3.7% 7.0 lakh acres
  6. 6 Jodhpur Rajasthan 3.5% 6.5 lakh acres
  7. 7 Sikar Rajasthan 3.3% 6.3 lakh acres
  8. 8 Morena Madhya Pradesh 2.8% 5.3 lakh acres
  9. 9 Churu Rajasthan 2.7% 5.0 lakh acres
  10. 10 Jhunjhunu Rajasthan 2.5% 4.7 lakh acres

Bajra (Pearl Millet) yield, quintals an acre (average of 2020-21 to 2024-25 in most districts)

  1. 1.0–4.0
  2. 4.1–5.3
  3. 5.4–7.7
  4. 7.8–9.9
  5. 10–16
No data

1 Numbers match the list: the districts with the most area.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Where yields are highest

Districts growing it on at least 100 ha, against the average across India. The line runs from India's average to each district.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Across India over the years

Yield across India, quintals an acre

0 2 q 4 q 6 q 8 q
2000-01 2024-25
Latest 6.2 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

1.8 crore 2 crore 2.3 crore 2.5 crore 2.8 crore
2000-01 2024-25
Latest 1.8 crore acres in 2024-25

Years run July to June. Only years in which most of the usual districts reported are shown.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2000-01 to 2024-25.