Lentil (Masoor)

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
115 days
about 4 months
Water
270–350 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
15–29 °C
0 °C survives 5–32 °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?

Kolar Karnataka
Water
Season

Won't work: too dry without irrigation

Lentil (Masoor)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in October, harvest around February

Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.

No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Priced from mandis across India.

Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on

  • Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 360 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 80 mm it can use in a normal year, and 60 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 15–29 °C on average, and survives 5–32 °C.

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

  • Oct 29 °C / 20 °C
  • Nov 27 °C / 18 °C
  • Dec 27 °C / 16 °C
  • Jan 28 °C / 16 °C

Soil

Soil for Lentil (Masoor): 8 out of 10 (good).

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
  • Many fields here are short of sulphur, which it needs a lot.
  • Most fields here are short of organic carbon.

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 4.1 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹6,027 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹6,950 a quintal, the middle of 10 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Minimum support price: ₹7,390 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹6,000 2021
  2. ₹6,220 2022
  3. ₹5,860 2023
  4. ₹6,660 2024
  5. ₹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

  • Short of organic carbon Your soil is likely short of organic carbon.

    Add 4 tonnes of compost or farmyard manure per acre before sowing, and plough crop leftovers back in instead of burning them.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
4 kg
DAP
35 kg
MOP
13 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Kolar

What it needs

Temperature

15–29 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 5–32 °C.

Water

270–350 mm over its season

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

Sagar Vidisha Bahraich Rajgarh Banda

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 8.2.

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); ICAR-CSSRI crop salt tolerance; 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

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
4 kg less than a quarter of a 45 kg bag
DAP phosphate
35 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag
MOP potash
13 kg about ¼ of a 50 kg bag

Sulphur: 8 kg for one acre, from about 45 kg of gypsum or 65 kg of single super phosphate

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. If your soil card says a nutrient is low, add about a quarter more of it.

Watch out for

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra
  • Wilt
    Disease

    Look for

    Plants droop and dry in patches; brown streaks inside the stem.

    What to do first

    Grow a resistant variety, treat seed with Trichoderma and rotate crops.

  • Rust
    Disease

    Look for

    Brown powdery spots on the leaves and pods.

    What to do first

    Grow a resistant variety; spray mancozeb when spots appear. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Aphids
    Pest

    Look for

    Clusters of small insects on shoots and pods.

    What to do first

    Spray only if clusters are thick; ask your KVK.

What an acre earns

At India's average yield and a recent price, named below. Your land, water and mandi will differ.

Left an acre, a season

₹8,800

Yield India's average
4.1 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Feb–Mar 2026)
₹6,027 a quintal
= Income
₹24,600
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹15,800
= Left
₹8,800

This week lentil (masoor) sells at about ₹6,950 a quintal: India's middle price at 10 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹12,600 a season.

Sold at the support price (MSP, ₹7,390 a quintal) to government procurement, an acre would leave about ₹14,400 a season. Procurement isn't open everywhere: ask at your mandi or agriculture office.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹19,700 to ₹29,600 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹7,400 a quintal
Lowest
February, ₹5,889 a quintal
₹5,889
₹7,400
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Nov 2026).

Government minimum support price (MSP): ₹7,390 a quintal for 2027-28. Every crop's MSP

Latest prices near Kolar Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
40.7 lakh acres
2024-25
Average yield
4.1 quintals an acre (1.0 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Sagar
Madhya Pradesh
Best yield
Jhargram
6.2 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.

31% of India's lentil (masoor) area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Sagar Madhya Pradesh 5.9% 2.3 lakh acres
  2. 2 Vidisha Madhya Pradesh 4.8% 1.9 lakh acres
  3. 3 Bahraich Uttar Pradesh 3.8% 1.5 lakh acres
  4. 4 Rajgarh Madhya Pradesh 2.6% 1.0 lakh acres
  5. 5 Banda Uttar Pradesh 2.5% 98,735 acres
  6. 6 Damoh Madhya Pradesh 2.5% 98,523 acres
  7. 7 Ashoknagar Madhya Pradesh 2.5% 97,801 acres
  8. 8 Dindori Madhya Pradesh 2.2% 88,064 acres
  9. 9 Jalaun Uttar Pradesh 2.2% 87,655 acres
  10. 10 Balrampur Uttar Pradesh 2.1% 82,771 acres

Lentil (Masoor) yield, quintals an acre (average of 2020-21 to 2024-25 in most districts)

  1. 0.0–2.8
  2. 2.9–3.3
  3. 3.4–3.8
  4. 3.9–4.3
  5. 4.4–21
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). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

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). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Across India over the years

Yield across India, quintals an acre

0 2 q 4 q 6 q
2006-07 2024-25
Latest 4.0 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

30 lakh 35 lakh 40 lakh 45 lakh
2006-07 2024-25
Latest 40.7 lakh acres in 2024-25

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). 2006-07 to 2024-25.

Soil and yield

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

Lentil (Masoor) yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is neutral weak 277 districts

Lentil (Masoor) yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic weak 277 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).