Lentil (Masoor)
Sow in October, harvest around March
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 4.9 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹28,000–₹42,000
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹12,000–₹27,000 an acre a season
- Suits: Rain is enough
- Needs care: Cool in December
- 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 250 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 70 mm it can use in a normal year (40 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 170 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 15–29 °C on average, and survives 5–32 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 25 °C / 15 °C
- Nov 21 °C / 10 °C
- Dec 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 15 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 18 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 23 °C / 11 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Lentil (Masoor): 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: nitrogen, organic carbon, sulphur and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
Likes pH 5.5–7.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 5.6 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹6,283 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹6,950 a quintal, the middle of 10 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹23,000 a season after typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹7,390 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹6,000 2021
- ₹6,220 2022
- ₹5,860 2023
- ₹6,660 2024
- ₹6,740 2025
Prices are usually best in November.
Typical costs are about ₹16,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). They are spent whatever the harvest.