Horse Gram (Kulthi)
Sow in October, harvest around February
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
No recent figures for your district. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹7,000–₹10,000
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹1,000–₹5,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 10/10
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 310 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 20 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 20–28 °C on average, and survives 17–35 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 31 °C / 21 °C
- Nov 29 °C / 15 °C
- Dec 27 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 27 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Horse Gram (Kulthi): 10 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
Likes pH 5.5–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 2.5 quintals an acre here (older figures, 2018-19).
On rain alone it gets about 71% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 71% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹4,807 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹4,963 a quintal, the middle of 12 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹3,000 a season after typical costs.
- ₹4,540 2021
- ₹4,350 2022
- ₹4,750 2023
Prices are usually best in August.
Typical costs are about ₹6,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 29%
- Urea 29%