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.
Temperate Himalaya: Kashmir valley, Shimla, Kullu, Uttarakhand hills
Not a crop for this region
Chickpea is a crop of the lower, warmer belt, grown up to about 600 m. Severe winter cold and frost in the temperate valleys harm the crop.1
Where it grows nearest
Sub-tropical foothills: Jammu, Kangra, Dehradun
Sow Mid to end of October
See the Sub-tropical foothills guideNorth-west plains: Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh
Sow 10 to 25 October
See the North-west plains guide
Across India
When to sow it
Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.
- Sow
- Harvest
- Today
- Not suited here
Compare all 12 regionsShow fewer regions
See the dates as a table
| Region | Sow | Nursery | Transplant | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperate Himalaya | Not suited here | |||
| Cold desert | Not suited here | |||
| Sub-tropical foothills | Mid to end of October | Late March to April | ||
| North-west plains | 10 to 25 October25 October to 10 November | April | ||
| Gangetic plains | Late October to November | March to early April | ||
| North-east hills and valleys | Late October to November | Late February to March | ||
| Arid west | October to early November | Late February to March | ||
| Central plateau | Late October to November | Late February to March | ||
| Deccan plateau | 20 September to 10 October20 October to 10 NovemberFirst week of December | January to February | ||
| South interior | November | February | ||
| West coast | Not suited here | |||
| East coast | November | February | ||
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 Temperate Himalaya, 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 Temperate Himalaya aren't in the library yet.
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 picking1,2,4
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.
- Agriculture: Pulses: Bengal gramTNAU Agritech Portal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityRead the source
- Integrated 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
- Information about crop-wise improved varieties developed by the university: Pulses (chickpea variety sheets)Pulses Improvement Project, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV), RahuriRead the source
- Bengalgram Outlook Report 2025-26Agricultural Market Intelligence Centre, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU)Read the source
AI Farm Manager · In development
Plan this crop on your land
AI Farm Manager will turn guides like this one into a plan for your own plot. It doesn't make plans yet.