Gram (Chana)
Sow in October, harvest around March
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 9.5 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 December
- Suits: Soil 9/10
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 250 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 70 mm it can use in a normal year (40 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 170 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 / 15 °C
- Nov 21 °C / 10 °C
- Dec 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 15 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 18 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 23 °C / 11 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Gram (Chana): 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: nitrogen, organic carbon, sulphur and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
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.
How to make it work
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 100%