Khesari (Grass Pea)

A winter crop. Sow in Oct–Nov, harvest in Feb–Mar.

Check it on your land
Season
Rabi
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

100% of its area.
Ready in
120 days
about 4 months
Water
340–400 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
10–28 °C
0 °C survives 4–32 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Rabi 100% of its area
Today: rabi sowing time
J J A S O N D J F M A M
Sow Growing Harvest
The year starts in June, with the monsoon. Your district can shift a few weeks.

Sowing Growing Harvest

Will it grow on your land?

Raipur Chhattisgarh
Water
Season

Possible in Raipur, with effort

Khesari (Grass Pea)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in October, harvest around February

Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.

Grown on 19,882 acres here.

No price yet to estimate income

  • Needs care: Risky: 5 irrigations short
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 5 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 400 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 10 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 190 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 10–28 °C on average, and survives 4–32 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

  • Oct 32 °C / 22 °C
  • Nov 30 °C / 16 °C
  • Dec 29 °C / 13 °C
  • Jan 28 °C / 13 °C
  • Feb 32 °C / 16 °C

Soil

Soil for Khesari (Grass Pea): 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.

Likes pH 6.0–7.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 2.2 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).

No mandi or support price for this crop yet.

See every crop that suits Raipur

What it needs

Temperature

10–28 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 4–32 °C.

Water

340–400 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Mungeli South 24 Parganas Bemetara Balod Rajnandgaon

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 8.3.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • N Makes its own nitrogen
  • P Needs plenty of phosphorus and sulphur
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for one acre

Not covered yet. Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra for the dose.

Watch out for

Not covered yet. Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to watch for.

Mandi price, month by month

No mandi prices for this crop yet.

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
6.9 lakh acres
2022-23
Average yield
3.3 quintals an acre (0.8 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2022-23
Most area
Mungeli
Chhattisgarh
Best yield
Malda
5.4 quintals an acre

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

65% of India's khesari (grass pea) area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Mungeli Chhattisgarh 19% 1.4 lakh acres
  2. 2 South 24 Parganas West Bengal 8.0% 61,298 acres
  3. 3 Bemetara Chhattisgarh 7.9% 60,218 acres
  4. 4 Balod Chhattisgarh 7.2% 54,765 acres
  5. 5 Purba Medinipur West Bengal 4.7% 35,966 acres
  6. 6 Rajnandgaon Chhattisgarh 4.7% 35,457 acres
  7. 7 Murshidabad West Bengal 4.1% 31,389 acres
  8. 8 Dhamtari Chhattisgarh 3.5% 27,030 acres
  9. 9 Patna Bihar 3.0% 22,639 acres
  10. 10 Aurangabad Bihar 2.9% 22,453 acres

Khesari (Grass Pea) yield, quintals an acre (average of 2018-19 to 2022-23 in most districts)

  1. 1.6–2.2
  2. 2.4–3.4
  3. 3.5–3.8
  4. 3.9–4.3
  5. 4.4–5.4
No data

1 Numbers match the list: the districts with the most area.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Where yields are highest

Districts growing it on at least 100 ha, against the average across India. The line runs from India's average to each district.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Across India over the years

Yield across India, quintals an acre

0 2 q 4 q 6 q
2001-02 2022-23
Latest 3.9 quintals an acre in 2022-23

Area sown across India, acres

0 5 lakh 10 lakh 15 lakh 20 lakh
2001-02 2022-23
Latest 6.9 lakh acres in 2022-23

Years run July to June. Only years in which most of the usual districts reported are shown.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2001-02 to 2022-23.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Khesari (Grass Pea) yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil high in phosphorus moderate 68 districts

Khesari (Grass Pea) yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil low in nitrogen moderate 67 districts

A pattern is not proof that soil causes the difference.

Source: Soil Health Card – soil nutrient analysis (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).