Urad (Black Gram)

A monsoon crop. Sow in Jun–Jul, harvest in Sep–Oct.

Check it on your land
Season
Kharif
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

75% of its area. Also grown in rabi, summer.
Ready in
80 days
about 2½ months
Water
270–300 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
22–35 °C
0 °C survives 8–40 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Kharif 75% of its area
Rabi 20% of its area
Summer 5% 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?

Samba Jammu And Kashmir
Water
Season

Won't work: too cold here in this season

Urad (Black Gram)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in November, harvest around February

Sowing time is now.

No figures for this season in your district. Priced from mandis across India.

₹6,000–₹9,000

per acre a season, before costs

Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹5,000–₹8,000 an acre a season

  • Suits: Rain is enough
  • Doesn't suit: Too cold here in this season
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain is enough, even in a dry year.

Needs about 130 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 30 mm it can use in a normal year (20 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 180 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):

  • Nov 25 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
  • Dec 20 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jan 18 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)

Nights in December can bring frost while the plants are young. Sow a little later, or cover the seedlings on cold nights.

Soil

Soil for Urad (Black Gram): 9 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: organic carbon.

  • 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 iron.

Likes pH 5.5–6.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 1.2 quintals an acre here in its other seasons (district figures).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹6,389 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 ₹5,000 a season at typical costs.

Minimum support price: ₹8,200 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹5,930 2021
  2. ₹5,700 2022
  3. ₹7,310 2023
  4. ₹8,230 2024
  5. ₹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 4.0 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.

  • Short of iron Your soil is likely short of iron.

    Spray ferrous sulphate, 5 g per litre of water, when young leaves turn yellow.

    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 Samba

What it needs

Temperature

22–35 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 8–40 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

270–300 mm over its season

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

Lalitpur Chhatarpur Sagar Damoh Tikamgarh

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes slightly acidic soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 7.5.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Needs rich soil
  • 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
  • Yellow mosaic
    Disease

    Look for

    Yellow patches on the leaves; spread by whitefly.

    What to do first

    Grow a resistant variety, pull out sick plants early and control whitefly.

  • Leaf crinkle
    Disease

    Look for

    Leaves grow large, thick and crinkled.

    What to do first

    Use healthy seed and pull out sick plants.

  • Pod borer
    Pest

    Look for

    Holes in pods with caterpillars feeding inside.

    What to do first

    Use pheromone traps and bird perches; spray when caterpillars are many. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

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

₹2,300

Yield India's average
2.6 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Jan–Mar 2026)
₹6,378 a quintal
= Income
₹16,400
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹14,100
= Left
₹2,300

This week urad (black gram) sells at about ₹7,728 a quintal: India's middle price at 184 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹5,800 a season.

Sold at the support price (MSP, ₹8,200 a quintal) to government procurement, an acre would leave about ₹7,000 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: ₹13,100 to ₹19,700 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
October, ₹8,225 a quintal
Lowest
December, ₹5,900 a quintal
₹8,225
₹5,900
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): ₹8,200 a quintal for 2026-27. Every crop's MSP

Latest prices near Samba Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
69.8 lakh acres
2024-25
Average yield
2.6 quintals an acre (0.6 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Lalitpur
Uttar Pradesh
Best yield
East Godavari
6.3 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.

30% of India's urad (black gram) area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Lalitpur Uttar Pradesh 4.7% 4.4 lakh acres
  2. 2 Chhatarpur Madhya Pradesh 4.2% 3.9 lakh acres
  3. 3 Sagar Madhya Pradesh 3.6% 3.4 lakh acres
  4. 4 Damoh Madhya Pradesh 3.6% 3.4 lakh acres
  5. 5 Tikamgarh Madhya Pradesh 3.3% 3.1 lakh acres
  6. 6 Krishna Andhra Pradesh 3.2% 3.0 lakh acres
  7. 7 Bundi Rajasthan 2.4% 2.2 lakh acres
  8. 8 Tonk Rajasthan 1.7% 1.6 lakh acres
  9. 9 Panna Madhya Pradesh 1.6% 1.5 lakh acres
  10. 10 Jabalpur Madhya Pradesh 1.6% 1.5 lakh acres

Urad (Black Gram) yield, quintals an acre (average of 2020-21 to 2024-25 in most districts)

  1. 0.4–1.6
  2. 1.7–2.3
  3. 2.4–2.7
  4. 2.8–3.5
  5. 3.6–7.4
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 1 q 2 q 3 q
2008-09 2024-25
Latest 2.9 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

0 50 lakh 1 crore 1.5 crore
2008-09 2024-25
Latest 69.8 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). 2008-09 to 2024-25.

Soil and yield

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

Urad (Black Gram) yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil short of zinc weak 500 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).