Urad (Black Gram)
Sow in October, harvest around January
Still sowing time: sow by the end of December.
Grown on 37 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹8,000–₹11,000
per acre a season, before costs
Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹3,000–₹6,000 an acre a season
- Suits: Rain is enough
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
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 230 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 20 mm it can use in a normal year (10 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 22–35 °C on average, and survives 8–40 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 32 °C / 22 °C
- Nov 30 °C / 17 °C
- Dec 28 °C / 13 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Urad (Black Gram): 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: pH and sulphur.
- Low nitrogen matters less: it makes its own.
- Most fields here are short of zinc.
Likes pH 5.5–6.5. We have no pH figures for this place.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 1.5 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹6,320 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹7,728 a quintal, the middle of 184 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹2,000 a season at typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹8,200 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹5,930 2021
- ₹5,700 2022
- ₹7,310 2023
- ₹8,230 2024
- ₹6,290 2025
Prices are usually best in October.
Typical costs are about ₹14,000 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
The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 3.6 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.
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Short of zinc Your soil is likely short of zinc.
Mix 10 kg of zinc sulphate per acre into the soil before sowing. One dose lasts two or three seasons.
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):
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 100%
- Urea 100%