Gram (Chana)
Sow in October, harvest around March
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 239 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹19,000–₹28,000
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹177–₹10,000 an acre a season
- Suits: Rain is enough
- Needs care: Cool in November
- Suits: Soil 10/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain is enough in a normal year. Keep one irrigation ready for a dry year.
Needs about 260 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 70 mm it can use in a normal year (20 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 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 25 °C / 14 °C
- Nov 21 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 15 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 18 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 23 °C / 11 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Gram (Chana): 10 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: organic carbon, sulphur, manganese and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
- Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
Likes pH 6.0–8.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
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 (March–April 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 ₹13,000 a season after typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹5,958 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹4,710 2021
- ₹4,510 2022
- ₹4,790 2023
- ₹6,300 2024
- ₹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.