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Informist, Thursday, Mar. 19, 2026

 

By Shreya Shetty

 

MUMBAI – The acreage and production of urad and moong during the summer crop season have been steadily increasing in the past few years due to a variety of factors, including better weather for the crop and additional income for farmers. While still relatively new, the trend indicates a change in the mindset of farmers – from the traditional seasons of kharif and rabi to the intervening summer. The trend is likely to gain a foothold in the coming years, stressing the importance of the summer crop season for pulses, although traditionally both are all-season crops, experts and market participants said.

 

"Moong and urad are being favoured more during the summer crop season," said Satish Upadhyay, secretary of the India Pulses and Grains Association. "These are both sensitive crops — especially urad — and also short-term crops, which make them ideal to be grown during the summer crop season," he said.

 

The urad crop takes around 70–90 days to mature and be ready for harvest, while moong takes around 60–75 days. The summer crop season, or the zaid season, falls between the rabi and kharif seasons – around February or March to June, depending on the state. Other than moong and urad, major summer crops include paddy, maize, and groundnut.

 

Kharif crops are largely reliant on the southwest monsoon for irrigation, which makes them susceptible to damage from irregular and untimely rainfall, experts said. Any variation in the onset or withdrawal of the monsoon usually affects crops negatively, especially sensitive ones such as urad, they said. Typically, production of pulses does not keep pace with the rise in acreage during the kharif season as unfavourable weather impacts yields, they said.

 

While both moong and urad are primarily kharif crops, they are also sown during the rabi season. According to data from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, 2022-23 (Jul-Jun) saw the beginning of farmers sowing both the pulses during the summer crop season as well. Since then, the acreage, production, and yield of urad and moong during the summer crop season have been on a steady uptrend.

 

The acreage of urad during the summer crop season in 2022-23 was 26,000 hectares, which increased to 27,000 hectares in next year, and to 36,000 hectares in 2024-25. Urad production during the summer crop season was 23,000 tonnes in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, before rising to 35,000 tonnes in 2024-25.

 

Urad recorded its best yield in 2024-25 at 974 kg per hectare, much higher than the yield during the kharif and rabi seasons the same year at 615 kg per hectare and 894 per hectare, respectively.

 

The area under moong during the summer crop season of 2022-23 was 191,000 hectares. It fell slightly to 187,000 hectares in 2023-24, before rising to 235,000 hectares in 2024-25. Moong output during the season was 185,000 tonnes in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, before rising to 237,000 tonnes in 2024-25.

 

Similar to urad, the highest yield for moong in the past five years at 1,009 kg per hectare was in the summer of 2024-25. Yields during the kharif and rabi seasons the same year were 520 kg per hectare and 738 kg per hectare, respectively.

 

Urad production during the 2025-26 kharif season is seen down at 1.21 million tonnes from 1.34 million tonnes last year, and rabi production the same year is also seen down at 51,000 tonnes from 55,000 tonnes a year ago, according to the second advance estimates released by the agriculture ministry. Moong production during the kharif season is seen rising to 1.98 million tonnes from 1.77 million tonnes last year, but rabi production is seen down at 9,000 tonnes from 10,000 tonnes.

 

As of Friday, the area under moong in the ongoing summer crop season was 133,000 hectares, up 22% on year, while that under urad was 71,000 hectares, up over 39% on year. The rise in urad and moong acreage during the summer crop season is also driven by farmers seeking additional income, experts and market participants said. Most pulses farmers prefer to make use of the empty fields between the kharif and rabi seasons to earn more, they said.

 

"The production (of moong and urad) is much lower during summer, but farmers also don't want to sit idle during this season, and this trend actually started in Punjab," said a trader from Kota, Rajasthan. "Farmers there (in Punjab) are always enthusiastic about making the most of their fields during all times, so they began growing these pulses during the 'downtime' which is summer crop season," he said. Over time, farmers in other states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also began following the trend, he said.

 

Most agriculture-focused states such as Punjab and Madhya Pradesh already have a robust irrigation system, which aids summer crop production without any major hiccups, experts said.

 

"Growing urad and moong is additional income, and quite remunerative too, because of their higher minimum support price," said Rahul Chauhan, president of IGrain, an agri-commodity research centre. "The Madhya Pradesh government has also announced an additional bonus for the summer urad crop to encourage farmers to grow more of the legume in summer," he said.

 

The minimum support price of moong is INR 8,768 per 100 kg, the highest among all pulses. The minimum support price of urad is INR 7,800 per 100 kg. The Madhya Pradesh government has announced a bonus of INR 600 per 100 kg over and above the minimum support price.

 

The choice of growing moong and urad does not stop just at their remunerative advantage — both crops are also essential in increasing soil fertility, experts said. "The short period between the rabi and kharif season, which is the summer crop season, is important for the recovery of soil nutrients," Chauhan said, adding, "Sowing urad and moong is an excellent way of increasing nitrogen levels in the soil to help with fertility."

 

According to various studies, moong and urad roots develop nodules containing Rhizobium bacteria, which convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, a form of nitrogen that plants can directly use for growth. The process, called nitrogen fixation, reduces dependency on synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, enhances microbial activity and soil structure, and prepares the field for nutrient-hungry crops such as wheat or paddy.

 

While other pulses also help in increasing soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, the short-term duration of both urad and moong make them ideal choices to be sown during the summer crop season, Chauhan said.

 

"It is not like kharif production will ever fall too much as it is the main crop season of the country, but there will definitely be a rise in summer acreage for urad and moong in the coming years — the favourable weather (during summer) definitely helps," the trader said.

 

Typically, the rise in temperatures during the summer does not impact the urad and moong crop as much of the sowing is done immediately after the harvest of rabi crops, which is during February and March, Upadhyay said. However, this year, the earlier onset of higher temperatures was a bit worrying, he said.

 

"We have to wait and watch. Summer temperatures began earlier than usual this year, and it is already 35–40 degrees Celsius in many cities. So far, we are in good shape, but from here onwards, we can't judge," Upadhyay said.  End

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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