Gram (Chana)
Sow in October, harvest around May
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 48 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹19,000–₹29,000
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹550–₹10,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Doesn't suit: Too cold in january
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 380 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 140 mm it can use in a normal year (70 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 180 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 21 °C / 11 °C
- Nov 17 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 14 °C / 3 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 11 °C / 2 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 14 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 18 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 23 °C / 12 °C
- May 26 °C / 15 °C
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 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 83% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 83% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (May 2026): about ₹8,114 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 ₹2,000 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.
How to make it work
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Short of sulphur Your soil is likely short of sulphur.
Use single super phosphate instead of DAP, or add about 100 kg of gypsum per acre before sowing.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.