Lentil (Masoor)
Sow in October, harvest around February
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 1.0 lakh acres here. Sold at 17 mandis in your district.
₹13,000–₹20,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹2,000 to a profit of ₹4,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 4 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 4 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 350 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 0 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 15–29 °C on average, and survives 5–32 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 35 °C / 19 °C
- Nov 32 °C / 14 °C
- Dec 28 °C / 11 °C
- Jan 27 °C / 11 °C
Soil
Soil for Lentil (Masoor): 8 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 5.5–7.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 5.0 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).
On rain alone it gets about 56% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 56% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹5,954 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹5,799 a quintal, the middle of 5 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹409 a season after typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹7,390 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹5,990 2021
- ₹6,200 2022
- ₹5,600 2023
- ₹5,960 2025
Prices are usually best in August.
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.
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 69%
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 61%
- Muriate of Potash (MOP) 58%
- Single Super Phosphate (SSP) 7%