Horse Gram (Kulthi)
Sow in October, harvest around February
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 29,662 acres here. Sold at 2 mandis in your district.
₹5,000–₹8,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹417 to a profit of ₹2,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 5 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 5 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 340 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 70 mm it can use in a normal year (50 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 50 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 29 °C / 20 °C
- Nov 28 °C / 19 °C
- Dec 28 °C / 17 °C
- Jan 29 °C / 17 °C
Soil
Soil for Horse Gram (Kulthi): 9 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
- Most fields here are short of boron.
Likes pH 5.5–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 2.3 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).
Mandi price at last season's harvest (March 2026): about ₹3,000 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹4,925 a quintal, the middle of 11 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹5,000 a season after typical costs.
Prices are usually best in October.
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
-
Short of boron Your soil is likely short of boron.
Mix 4 kg of borax per acre into the soil before sowing.
Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 9%
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 3%
- Muriate of Potash (MOP) 1%
- Single Super Phosphate (SSP) 0%