Gram (Chana)

A winter crop. Sow in Oct–Nov, harvest in Feb–Mar.

Check it on your land
Season
Rabi
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

100% of its area.
Ready in
110 days
about 3½ months
Water
290–350 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
15–29 °C
0 °C survives 7–35 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Rabi 100% of its area
Today: rabi sowing time
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?

Nalanda Bihar
Water
Season

Possible in Nalanda, with effort

Gram (Chana)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in October, harvest around February

Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.

Grown on 11,748 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.

₹19,000–₹29,000

per acre a season, before costs

After typical costs: ₹614–₹10,000 an acre a season

  • Needs care: Risky: 3 irrigations short
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 3 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 260 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 10 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 140 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 15–29 °C on average, and survives 7–35 °C.

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

  • Oct 32 °C / 23 °C
  • Nov 29 °C / 15 °C
  • Dec 25 °C / 11 °C
  • Jan 23 °C / 9 °C

Soil

Soil for Gram (Chana): 9 out of 10 (good).

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Most fields here are short of boron.

Likes pH 6.0–8.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 4.6 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹5,171 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹7,000 a quintal, the middle of 283 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹14,000 a season after typical costs.

Minimum support price: ₹5,958 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹4,710 2021
  2. ₹4,510 2022
  3. ₹4,790 2023
  4. ₹6,300 2024
  5. ₹5,530 2025

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹19,000 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

The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 5.1 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.

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

    Mix 4 kg of borax per acre into the soil before sowing.

    Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.

What local farmers put on it (share of fields):

  • Urea 41%
  • Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 38%
  • Calcium Ammonium Nitrate 1%
  • Muriate of Potash (MOP) 0%

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
4 kg
DAP
35 kg
MOP
13 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Nalanda

What it needs

Temperature

15–29 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 7–35 °C.

Water

290–350 mm over its season

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

Latur Churu Buldhana Nanded Dharashiv

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.7 to 9.5.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • N Makes its own nitrogen
  • P Needs plenty of phosphorus and sulphur
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); ICAR-CSSRI crop salt tolerance; 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

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
4 kg less than a quarter of a 45 kg bag
DAP phosphate
35 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag
MOP potash
13 kg about ¼ of a 50 kg bag

Sulphur: 8 kg for one acre, from about 45 kg of gypsum or 65 kg of single super phosphate

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
  • Pod borer
    Pest

    Look for

    Holes in pods with green caterpillars half inside.

    What to do first

    Put up bird perches and pheromone traps; spray neem or NPV early. Use a chemical spray only when caterpillars are many. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Wilt
    Disease

    Look for

    Plants droop and dry in patches; brown streaks inside the stem.

    What to do first

    Grow a wilt-resistant variety, treat seed with Trichoderma and don't grow gram in the same field every year.

  • Dry root rot
    Disease

    Look for

    Plants dry suddenly at flowering; roots turn black and brittle.

    What to do first

    Sow on time and avoid water stress at flowering; treat seed with Trichoderma.

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

₹6,900

Yield India's average
4.9 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Feb–Mar 2026)
₹5,171 a quintal
= Income
₹25,500
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹18,600
= Left
₹6,900

This week gram (chana) sells at about ₹7,000 a quintal: India's middle price at 283 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹15,900 a season.

Sold at the support price (MSP, ₹5,958 a quintal) to government procurement, an acre would leave about ₹10,800 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: ₹20,400 to ₹30,600 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹6,860 a quintal
Lowest
December, ₹5,019 a quintal
₹6,860
₹5,019
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): ₹5,958 a quintal for 2027-28. Every crop's MSP

Latest prices near Nalanda Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
2.1 crore acres
2024-25
Average yield
4.9 quintals an acre (1.2 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Latur
Maharashtra
Best yield
Mainpuri
9.7 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.

20% of India's gram (chana) area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Latur Maharashtra 2.8% 6.7 lakh acres
  2. 2 Churu Rajasthan 2.5% 6.1 lakh acres
  3. 3 Buldhana Maharashtra 2.3% 5.5 lakh acres
  4. 4 Nanded Maharashtra 2.2% 5.4 lakh acres
  5. 5 Dharashiv Maharashtra 2.2% 5.3 lakh acres
  6. 6 Ajmer Rajasthan 1.6% 3.9 lakh acres
  7. 7 Bikaner Rajasthan 1.6% 3.9 lakh acres
  8. 8 Hanumangarh Rajasthan 1.6% 3.8 lakh acres
  9. 9 Jaisalmer Rajasthan 1.5% 3.7 lakh acres
  10. 10 Hingoli Maharashtra 1.4% 3.3 lakh acres

Gram (Chana) yield, quintals an acre (average of 2020-21 to 2024-25 in most districts)

  1. 0.0–3.4
  2. 3.5–4.3
  3. 4.4–5.1
  4. 5.2–6.2
  5. 6.3–9.7
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
1999-00 2024-25
Latest 4.8 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

0 1 crore 2 crore 3 crore
1999-00 2024-25
Latest 2.1 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). 1999-00 to 2024-25.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Gram (Chana) yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is neutral weak 403 districts

Gram (Chana) yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic weak 403 districts

A pattern is not proof that soil causes the difference.

Source: Soil Health Card – soil nutrient analysis (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).