Lentil (Masoor)
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.
₹16,000–₹24,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹10 to a profit of ₹8,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Not known: No soil data
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 270 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 60 mm it can use in a normal year (40 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 160 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 26 °C / 17 °C
- Nov 23 °C / 12 °C
- Dec 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 20 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 22 °C / 8 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Likes pH 5.5–7.5. We have no pH figures for this place.
Money
Yield: about 4.1 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).
On rain alone it gets about 80% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 80% of this yield.
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). At that price an acre would leave about ₹7,000 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.