Growing Pigeonpea (Tur/Arhar) in Gujarat

Updated 2026-07-13 · Region guide

Gujarat sits in the Gujarat Plains & Hills (Saurashtra) with semi-arid to arid and sandy-loam, black soil, coastal alluvium. Saurashtra sandy loams make it a top groundnut and cotton state. Here's how pigeonpea (tur/arhar) — a Kharif crop — fits, and how to grow it well here.

Is Gujarat good for growing pigeonpea (tur/arhar)?

When to sow pigeonpea (tur/arhar) in Gujarat

Sow in Jun–Jul and harvest around Dec–Jan. The crop takes about 150–270 days. In Gujarat's semi-arid to arid, the window matters more than anything else you do: ~800 mm (variable) rainfall and wells + Narmada canal mean a late Kharif sowing runs pigeonpea (tur/arhar) into the wrong weather at its most sensitive stage.

Where pigeonpea (tur/arhar) actually grows in Gujarat

Gujarat's tur sits in the central and eastern belt — Vadodara, Bharuch, Narmada, Chhota Udepur, Panchmahal, Dahod, Surat and Tapi — with pockets in Sabarkantha, Aravalli and Banaskantha. Unlike the Deccan, a large share of it gets protective irrigation on medium black and loamy soils, which is exactly why Gujarat records the highest tur yield per hectare in India.

Where it is sold: Dahod, Godhra, Vadodara and Bharuch are the working tur yards. Procurement is the part worth knowing: in Gujarat the NAFED price-support buying is executed by GUJCOMASOL, the state cooperative marketing federation, through registered centres — you register on the state portal before harvest, not after the rate slips. And note that high yields do not protect you, because the national tur price is set by imports and by Latur, not by your farm.

The local risk to plan for: Bharuch, Narmada and Surat get a far heavier monsoon than any other tur tract in India, and tur cannot survive a waterlogged week — Phytophthora blight and outright drowning are the local killers, not drought. The second squeeze is land: tur competes with cotton for the same June sowing decision, and cotton usually wins on the good ground.

Best pigeonpea (tur/arhar) varieties for Gujarat

Grown in Gujarat:

• GT-100 and GT-101 — the Gujarat Tur series bred in-state for these conditions
• GT-102 and GT-103 — newer Gujarat releases
• AGT-2 (Anand Gujarat Tur-2)
• BDN-2 — older, but still grown across the central belt
• ICPL-87 (Pragati) — extra-early, where the land has to be freed for a rabi crop

Confirm the variety is notified for Gujarat — on sandy-loam, black soil, coastal alluvium under wells + Narmada canal, a variety bred for a different zone will underperform whatever the seed packet claims. Your Gujarat KVK or agriculture officer holds the current shortlist.

Typical yield & price

Typical yield here is around 5–8 quintal/acre. The government MSP is ₹7,000/quintal; local mandi rates vary, so check YieldAI for today's live Gujarat price.

Common problems in Gujarat

The pests and diseases to scout for:

• Phytophthora stem blight and plain waterlogging death in the high-rainfall Bharuch-Narmada-Surat tract — a heavier monsoon than any other tur state faces
• pod borer and pod fly at flowering and podding from November
• fusarium wilt on the older tur land of the Dahod-Panchmahal tribal belt
• sterility mosaic patches, which build where seed is saved off the same plot year on year

semi-arid to arid conditions shape which of these bite hardest each season — scout early and act while a problem is small. YieldAI can identify a pest or disease from a photo of your crop.

Key practices

• Gujarat gets India's highest tur yields because much of the crop gets protective irrigation — one watering at flowering and one at pod-fill is the whole difference between a Gujarat crop and a purely rainfed Deccan one
• Plant on ridges or raised beds in the heavy-rainfall south Gujarat districts; a waterlogged week ends the crop regardless of everything else you did
• Register with GUJCOMASOL for price-support procurement before harvest — it is the state agency that actually executes NAFED buying here
• Stick to the Gujarat Tur (GT/AGT) series bred for this state rather than importing Marathwada material selected for rainfed black soil