The Organic
Revival
Pulses · Legume

Growing chickpea

Cicer arietinum · also called ChanaA winter pulse sown after the rains on light, well drained soil. It needs little water, fixes its own nitrogen and dislikes frost, heavy rain and wet feet.

Central plateau: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Includes AI suggestions where no published guide covers a detail
Green chickpea pods on dry soil, some split open to show the seeds inside
Photo: Eitan Ferman · PDM

At a glance

Chickpea in the Central plateau

  • Season

    Rabi: sown late October to November

    No published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

  • Sowing to last picking

    About three and a half to four months.

    No published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

  • Sow

    Late October to November

    No published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Across India

When to sow it

Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.

Sow now

The window here is Late October to November.

Sowing now in:North-west plainsGangetic plainsNorth-east hills and valleysArid westDeccan plateauSouth interiorEast coast
  • Sow
  • Harvest
  • Today
  • Not suited here
Central plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, VidarbhaArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north Karnataka
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluNot suited hereCold desertLadakh, Lahaul and SpitiNot suited hereSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, DehradunNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, DelhiGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsNorth-east hills and valleysAssam, Meghalaya, SikkimArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north KarnatakaSouth interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanNot suited hereEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
Central plateauLate October to NovemberLate February to March
Temperate HimalayaNot suited here
Cold desertNot suited here
Sub-tropical foothillsMid to end of OctoberLate March to April
North-west plains10 to 25 October25 October to 10 NovemberApril
Gangetic plainsLate October to NovemberMarch to early April
North-east hills and valleysLate October to NovemberLate February to March
Arid westOctober to early NovemberLate February to March
Deccan plateau20 September to 10 October20 October to 10 NovemberFirst week of DecemberJanuary to February
South interiorNovemberFebruary
West coastNot suited here
East coastNovemberFebruary

From seed to harvest

One season, day by day

Days from sowing

  1. Before sowing

    Well rotted farmyard manureNo published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    5 to 10 tonnes per hectare · Mix in during ploughing · field preparation

  2. Day 0

    Sow

    Rhizobium culture

    Coat the seed and dry it in the shade before sowing

  3. Day 5 to 10

    Seeds come up1,2,3Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

  4. Day 100 to 130

    Last pickingNo published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Mostly rainfed on black soils that hold moisture. With water, irrigate lightly at branching and pod formation; heavy watering on black soil causes wilt.No published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

What it needs

Soil, sun and warmth

  • Soil pH1,2,5Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

    6 to 8

    Well drained, light to medium textured soil; MPKV asks for medium to deep soil, 45 to 60 cm deep. Saline, alkaline and waterlogged soils do not suit it. It needs no fine tilth, but loose, airy soil cuts wilt and raises the yield.

  • SunlightNo published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    At least 6 hours a day

    Full sun. An open field with no shade from taller crops or trees.

  • Temperature1,2,5Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

    Grows best at 15 to 25 °C

    Frost: none tolerated.

    Monthly temperatures for the Central plateau aren't in the library yet.

Water and feeding

WateringNo published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Mostly rainfed on black soils that hold moisture. With water, irrigate lightly at branching and pod formation; heavy watering on black soil causes wilt.

WeedingNo published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Hoe or hand weed once or twice in the first six weeks.

WhenWhatHow muchHow
field preparationWell rotted farmyard manure5 to 10 tonnes per hectareMix in during ploughing
just before sowingRhizobium cultureCoat the seed and dry it in the shade before sowing

SourcesNo published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Varieties and yield

Typical rangeNo published guide covers this for the Central plateau, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

10 to 18 quintals a hectare

Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.

Varieties grown here5

  • Vijay

    MPKV; released for Madhya Pradesh; wilt resistant, drought tolerant

  • Vishwas

    MPKV; bold seed; released for Madhya Pradesh

  • Phule Vikrant (Phule G 0405)

    MPKV; irrigated; released for west Madhya Pradesh

  • Kripa

    MPKV; kabuli, extra large seed; irrigated; released for Madhya Pradesh

Good neighbours1,4

Pests and diseases4Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

Organic and cultural controls only.

  • Pest

    Gram pod borer

    Signs

    Caterpillars bore into pods and eat the seed.

    What to do

    • Bird perches, 20 a hectare, removed at harvest
    • Intercrop with linseed, mustard, coriander or rabi sorghum
    • Marigold on the border as a trap crop
    • Heaps of grass in the field to gather caterpillars, then destroy them
    • Pheromone traps to watch moth numbers

  • Disease

    Wilt and dry root rot

    What to do

    • Grow tolerant varieties
    • Rotate with crops that are not legumes
    • Where these diseases are bad, keep chickpea off the field for at least three years
    • Mix Trichoderma, 5 kg per hectare multiplied on 100 kg of decomposed farmyard manure, into moist soil

Seed and the season's end

Saving seed1,2Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

Keep seed from a healthy, true to type plot. Leave out plants that wilted or carried blight.

When the seed is ready

Pods turn straw coloured and the plants dry up. The seed rattles in the pod.

Cleaning the seed

Cut the plants, dry them in the sun, then thresh and clean the seed.

Dry the seed well and store it in sealed bins or bags in a cool, dry place, away from storage beetles.

After the last picking4

Plough deep right after harvest and destroy the stubble.

Cut the plants 4 to 5 cm above the ground with a sickle; do not uproot them, so the roots stay in the soil. Destroy diseased plants and stubble after harvest, and plough deep soon after.

Rotation

Rotate with cereals to check soil-borne diseases: sorghum or bajra then gram, rice or maize then gram, or rice, gram and summer moong. Where wilt or dry root rot is bad, keep chickpea off that field for at least three years.

Sources

Where this comes from

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.

These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.

  1. 3Agriculture: Pulses: Bengal gramTNAU Agritech Portal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityRead the source
  2. 4Integrated Pest Management Package for ChickpeaDirectorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, Ministry of Agriculture, with the National Centre for Integrated Pest Management (ICAR) and NIPHMRead the source
  3. 5Information about crop-wise improved varieties developed by the university: Pulses (chickpea variety sheets)Pulses Improvement Project, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV), RahuriRead the source
  4. 7Bengalgram Outlook Report 2025-26Agricultural Market Intelligence Centre, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU)Read the source

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