Gram (Chana)
Sow in October, harvest around March
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 53 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹22,000–₹32,000
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹3,000–₹14,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 1 irrigation short
- Needs care: Cool in November
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 1 irrigation (5 cm) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 250 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 80 mm it can use in a normal year (10 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 150 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 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 19 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Gram (Chana): 9 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
- Many fields here are short of phosphorus, which it needs a lot.
- Many fields here are short of sulphur, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 6.0–8.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 3.6 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 90% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 90% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹8,417 a quintal across mandis in your state.
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 ₹4,000 a season after typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹5,958 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹5,820 2022
- ₹7,000 2023
Prices are usually best in March.
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.