Gram (Chana)
Sow in October, harvest around April
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 39 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹24,000–₹35,000
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹5,000–₹17,000 an acre a season
- Suits: Rain is enough
- Needs care: Cool in November
- 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 300 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 80 mm it can use in a normal year (40 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 190 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 23 °C / 13 °C
- Nov 19 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 13 °C / 3 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 21 °C / 10 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Gram (Chana): 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: nitrogen.
- The pH here suits it.
- 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).
Mandi price at last season's harvest (April–May 2026): about ₹8,266 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 ₹6,000 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.