Urad (Black Gram)
Sow in October, harvest around January
Still sowing time: sow by the end of December.
Grown on 51 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹11,000–₹16,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹3,000 to a profit of ₹2,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 1 irrigation short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 1 irrigation (5 cm) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 260 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 31 °C / 17 °C
- Dec 30 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Urad (Black Gram): 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: zinc, iron, copper and manganese.
- 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.
Likes pH 5.5–6.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 2.8 quintals an acre here (district figures).
On rain alone it gets about 82% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 82% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹5,957 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹8,375 a quintal, the middle of 5 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹5,000 a season after typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹8,200 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹5,850 2021
- ₹5,810 2022
- ₹6,560 2023
- ₹6,510 2024
- ₹6,210 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.