Lentil (Masoor)
Sow in October, harvest around April
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 151 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹15,000–₹22,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹1,000 to a profit of ₹6,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Needs care: Cool in November
- Suits: Soil 9/10
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 360 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 100 mm it can use in a normal year (60 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 21 °C / 10 °C
- Nov 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 14 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 12 °C / 2 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 15 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 19 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 25 °C / 11 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Lentil (Masoor): 9 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
Likes pH 5.5–7.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 3.4 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 84% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 84% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (April–May 2026): about ₹6,450 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 ₹4,000 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.
How to make it work
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 3%