Guar (Cluster Bean)
Cyamopsis tetragonoloba
India's dominant industrial legume — grown almost entirely across Rajasthan, with Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab making up most of the rest, for a seed that is crushed into guar gum and traded worldwide in food, textiles and oil-and-gas drilling — the one thing that decides most of the crop is bacterial blight, a seed-borne disease documented as guar's single biggest threat, worse in every wet spell of the kharif season.
Quick Summary
The key points from this page in about two minutes — read it or have it read aloud.
Quick Summary
Guar, also called cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), is a deeply drought-tolerant kharif legume grown almost entirely across Rajasthan's arid and semi-arid tracts, with Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab making up most of the rest of India's area. India grows roughly four-fifths of the world's guar, and the reason it matters so far beyond farming is what its seed is used for: crushed and refined, guar seed yields guar gum, a natural thickener used worldwide in food processing, textiles, paper, pharmaceuticals and — its single largest industrial use — as a viscosity agent in oil and natural gas well drilling (hydraulic fracturing). That global industrial demand is what makes guar seed a real exchange commodity, trading actively on NCDEX alongside ordinary mandi sale, in a way most other pulses never do.
India's named guar varieties come from two breeding centres that between them define the crop. The Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute (RARI), Durgapura, has released a long series of clusterbean varieties, among them RGC-936 (released 1989, notified 1991), RGC-1002, RGC-1038 (Guar Karan), RGC-1055 (Guar Uday) and RGC-1066 (Guar Lathi). CCS Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), Hisar, contributes HG 365, HG 563 and HG 2-20. In ICAR's breeder-seed data for 2014-15 to 2021-22, HG 2-20, RGC-1038 and HG 365 were among the five leading varieties in all eight years.
One problem decides more of a guar crop's fate than anything else: bacterial blight, caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. cyamopsidis, is documented as the major disease of guar across Rajasthan and India, ahead of Alternaria leaf blight, anthracnose and powdery mildew. It is seed-borne, so it can re-enter a field every season through infected seed, and its severity tracks the weather closely — a longer or wetter spell during the kharif season means noticeably worse blight. Because guar is otherwise such a low-input, tolerant crop, this single seed-borne disease is where a grower's attention genuinely needs to go, ahead of almost anything else about fertiliser or irrigation.
- Crop type
- Rainfed kharif legume / industrial gum crop
- Season
- Kharif (rainfed)
- Suitable states
- Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab
- Growing duration
- 75–120 days
- Water requirement
- Very low; among the most drought-tolerant Indian legumes
- Temperature
- Warm to hot, 25–35°C; no frost tolerance
- Soil type
- Light, well-drained arid and semi-arid soils
- Difficulty level
- Easy (bacterial blight, Alternaria leaf blight)
- Expected yield
- 6–10 q/ha rainfed
- Key risk
- Bacterial blight — guar's single biggest disease threat
Overview
Guar, or cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), is a deeply drought-tolerant kharif legume grown almost entirely across Rajasthan, with Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab making up most of the rest of India's crop. It is deliberately suited to the country's driest, most arid tracts — India grows roughly four-fifths of the world's guar, which makes the crop far more than a regional pulse.
What sets guar apart from most other legumes is what its seed is used for. Crushed and refined, it yields guar gum, a natural thickener with major uses in food processing, textiles, paper and pharmaceuticals, and — its single largest industrial application — as a viscosity agent in oil and gas well drilling worldwide. That global industrial demand is why guar seed trades actively as a real commodity on NCDEX, alongside the ordinary mandi trade every other pulse relies on.
India's named varieties come mainly from RARI, Durgapura (the RGC series) and CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (the HG series). One disease decides more of the crop's outcome than anything else: bacterial blight, seed-borne and documented as guar's single biggest threat, worsens sharply in any wet spell of the kharif season — which is exactly why starting with clean, certified seed matters more here than almost any other input decision.
Crop timeline, sowing to harvest
A quick visual map of the season — jump to any section below for the detail behind each stage.
- Day 0
Sowing
Seed line-sown 3–5 cm deep with the onset of a reliable monsoon shower of at least 30–40 mm, typically late June to July.
- Day 5–8
Emergence
Germination is quick under good monsoon moisture; seedlings establish and tolerate early dry spells reasonably well once up.
- Day 20–25
First weeding
A single hand-weeding or hoeing while the canopy is still open removes most early weed competition.
- Day 25–50
Vegetative growth
The plant branches and spreads; this is also the window in which a wet, humid spell does the most to build up bacterial blight.
- Day 40–55
Flowering
Small, pale flowers appear along the stem; this is a critical stage for any available irrigation.
- Day 45–75
Pod formation & filling
Pods form in clusters along the stem and fill; sucking pests and pod borer are the main insect threat through this stage.
- Day 75–120
Maturity & harvest
Pods dry and turn brown; the crop is cut or uprooted, dried further and threshed once most pods have matured.
Suitable states
States where this crop is grown at scale, highlighted below. Your local Krishi Vigyan Kendra is still the final word for your specific block.
- Jammu and Kashmir
- Himachal Pradesh
- Punjab
- Uttarakhand
- Haryana
- Delhi
- Uttar Pradesh
- Rajasthan
- Bihar
- Jharkhand
- West Bengal
- Sikkim
- Assam
- Arunachal Pradesh
- Meghalaya
- Nagaland
- Manipur
- Mizoram
- Tripura
- Gujarat
- Madhya Pradesh
- Chhattisgarh
- Maharashtra
- Odisha
- Goa
- Telangana
- Andhra Pradesh
- Karnataka
- Kerala
- Tamil Nadu
- Puducherry
- Ladakh
- Chandigarh
- Lakshadweep
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
Grown here
Climate requirements
Guar's entire place in Indian agriculture rests on tolerating the driest conditions most legumes cannot — that tolerance does not extend to wet, humid weather, which is precisely what favours the crop's one serious disease risk.
Ideal temperature
A genuinely warm-to-hot-season crop, growing best between 25–35°C and tolerating real summer heat well; it has no meaningful frost tolerance, keeping it a strictly kharif crop
Rainfall
Very low water need — guar is one of the most drought-tolerant legumes grown in India and is deliberately sown to run on monsoon soil moisture alone across almost its entire growing area, with no supplemental irrigation in most years
Humidity
Moderate, drier conditions genuinely suit the crop; sustained humid, wet weather is exactly what accelerates guar's biggest problem, bacterial blight, so a wetter-than-usual kharif season should raise a grower's guard rather than be treated as simply good rain
Sunlight
Full sun for normal branching, flowering and pod set
Soil requirements
Choosing genuinely poor, marginal arid land for guar is the point of growing it, not a compromise — its whole economic case rests on giving a usable return from land that would give little or nothing under a more demanding crop.
Suitable soil
Grows best on light, well-drained sandy to sandy-loam soils typical of Rajasthan and Gujarat's arid and semi-arid tracts; it tolerates genuinely poor, low-fertility land, which is exactly why it remains the default legume across the driest parts of its belt
pH range
Wide tolerance, including the mildly alkaline soils common across its Rajasthan-Gujarat growing area
Drainage
Good drainage matters even on very tolerant land — standing water after an unusually heavy monsoon downpour damages the crop far more than the low fertility it is normally grown on
Organic matter
Low; guar is specifically valued for performing on low-organic-matter, low-fertility arid land, and its own root nodules fix a meaningful share of the nitrogen it needs
Land preparation
Same four steps whichever region you are in — only the timing shifts with the sowing window.
- 1
Minimal, timely tillage
One or two ploughings ahead of the first reliable monsoon shower are usually enough; guar does not need the fine, deep seedbed a root or tuber crop would.
- 2
Confirm the plot drains
Even on genuinely arid, tolerant land, avoid the lowest-lying corner of a field where an unusually heavy monsoon downpour can pool — waterlogging, not poor fertility, is what most damages this otherwise very tough crop.
- 3
Basal manure is optional, not essential
A light dose of farmyard manure helps establishment on very poor land, but guar's economics work precisely because it does not require a heavy basal dose the way a cereal or an oilseed would.
Seed information
How the main varieties compare, so you can pick by duration, yield, disease pressure or what you are growing for.
| Variety | Duration | Yield | Disease resistance | Best state | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Released in 1989 and notified in 1991: an early, branched rainfed guar from Durgapura. Little breeder seed is asked for now, so check seed availability. | 85 to 90 days (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based) | 8 to 10 q/ha (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based); lowest range of the RGC and HG lines in that table | Called resistant to many diseases, none named; no ICAR disease rating found | Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana | An old early rainfed type; little certified seed now |
Guar Uday, notified 5 October 2007 from the cross RGC 1013 x RGC 986: medium maturity, synchronous maturity, high endosperm. It is not the unbranched guar (that is Guar Lathi, RGC 1066). | Medium maturity (ICAR review); no day count found | Good yield with high endosperm (ICAR review); no q/ha figure found | No disease rating found | Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab | Medium-maturity, high-endosperm seed; check the name |
Released 1997, notified 1999: an early, branched guar with bold grey seed. It sits outside the top five in ICAR's breeder-seed data. | 80 to 90 days (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based) | 10 to 12 q/ha (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based); lowest pod yield of 14 cultivars in one Andhra trial | No disease rating found | Rajasthan | Bold grey seed; early branched type |
Guar Lathi, notified 5 October 2007 from the cross RGC 936 x RGC 197: an unbranched, early guar for inter- and mixed cropping, sown in rows 30 cm apart. | 85 to 90 days (Vikaspedia); early maturity (ICAR review) | 10 to 15 q/ha (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based) | No disease rating found | Rajasthan | Single-stem guar for tight rows and intercropping |
CCS HAU Hisar's grain guar, released in 2008: the most-demanded variety in ICAR's breeder-seed data, with a 14.1 to 45.2% share in each of 8 years. | 90 to 95 days (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based) | 12 to 15 q/ha (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based) | Resistant to Alternaria blight and root rot; moderately resistant to bacterial blight (ICAR review) | Haryana, Punjab | Seed and gum grain; most-demanded variety in the seed chain |
Haryana Guar-365, released in 1997 by CCS HAU Hisar: suits intensive cropping and early or late sowing. More seed and gum than HG 563 in Andhra trials. | 85 to 90 days (Vikaspedia); 102.15 days at West Godavari | 12 to 15 q/ha (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based); 619.07 kg/ha in rainfed Karnataka trials | Tolerant to bacterial blight (ICAR review) | Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan | Early and late sowing; higher seed and gum in two Andhra trials |
Released in 2003 by CCS HAU Hisar: suits early or late sowing, with high-viscosity gum. Crude gum was below HG 365 in an Andhra trial. | 85 to 90 days (Vikaspedia); 93.03 days at West Godavari | 12 to 13 q/ha (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based); 623.83 kg/ha in rainfed Karnataka trials | Tolerant to bacterial blight (ICAR review) | Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan | Early or late sowing; high-viscosity gum |
Also called Guar Karan and Rajasthan Guar 1038: a medium-maturity branched guar for semi-arid sandy loam, in ICAR's top five for breeder-seed demand in all 8 years. | 95 to 100 days (Vikaspedia); medium maturity (ICAR review) | 12 to 15 q/ha (Vikaspedia, ICAR-based); high fodder and seed yield (ICAR review) | No disease rating found | Rajasthan | Sandy loam, semi-arid land; a leading seed-chain variety |
A 2022 release from RARI Durgapura (SKNAU), bred from RGC 1038 x RGC 1017. Averaged 1,222 kg/ha in 26 rainy-season coordinated trials, 14% above the best check, with 30.2% gum and 3,412 cp viscosity. Not the same as RGC-1038 (Guar Karan). | Medium maturing, about 90 to 95 days (IJAS 2023) | 1,222 kg/ha average grain over 26 coordinated trials; fodder 2,567 kg/ha | Resistant to bacterial leaf blight and root rot; moderately resistant to Alternaria blight | Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra | Rainfed kharif guar grown for the gum market |
Guar Kunjal, released in 2010 for Rajasthan. It is the check variety in the 2018 to 2021 coordinated trials (1,069 kg/ha), and one of the most multiplied guar seeds in ICAR's breeder-seed data, 14.9 to 62.0% of indent in 7 of 8 years. | 95 to 100 days (DPD); 96.10 days to harvest in a West Godavari trial | 1,500 to 2,000 kg/ha (DPD); 1,069 kg/ha average as the check in 26 coordinated trials, 2018 to 2021 (IJAS 2023) | Moderately resistant to Alternaria leaf blight; tolerant (DPD) or moderately resistant (IJAS trials) to bacterial leaf blight; resistant to root rot | Rajasthan | Rajasthan rainfed guar where certified seed has to be easy to find |
An earlier-maturing guar released in 1997 and notified on 8 June 1999 (S.O. 425(E)), with large grain. DPD gives 90 to 95 days and 1,100 to 1,200 kg/ha for Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. | 90 to 95 days (DPD); 95.77 days to harvest in a West Godavari trial | 1,100 to 1,200 kg/ha (DPD) | No disease rating found | Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh | Land that needs an earlier, large-grained guar; an older release |
A CCS HAU Hisar guar notified in 2010 (S.O. 733(E)), listed by DPD at 90 to 95 days and 1,400 to 1,500 kg/ha, with 30 to 32% gum. In a Telangana trial it had the highest harvest index of 15 cultivars; in a West Godavari trial its pod weight was high but its seed weight low. | Medium early, 90 to 95 days (DPD); 93.71 days to harvest in a West Godavari trial | 1,400 to 1,500 kg/ha (DPD); gum 30 to 32% with 2,000 to 3,500 cP (DPD) | No disease rating found | Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan | Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan farmers who want a medium-early guar and sell on gum |
A CCS HAU Hisar guar for Haryana, notified on 1 April 2010 (S.O. 733(E)). DPD lists 85 to 95 days and 2,000 to 2,200 kg/ha, with moderate resistance to three diseases. In a West Godavari trial it was the shortest of 14 cultivars but gave less seed. | 85 to 95 days (DPD); 92.44 days to harvest in a West Godavari trial, the shortest of 14 | 2,000 to 2,200 kg/ha (DPD) | Moderately resistant to Alternaria leaf blight, bacterial leaf blight and root rot (DPD) | Haryana | Haryana guar where a short crop and a disease rating matter |
- Seed rate
- About 15 kg/ha, the optimum for both kharif and summer sowing (ICAR-based package on Vikaspedia); sow in rows with a seed drill or cultivator, not broadcast, and use only bold, clean seed
- Certified seed
- Buy certified seed of a named variety from RARI Durgapura, CCS HAU Hisar, your state seed corporation or a Krishi Vigyan Kendra rather than saved farm seed where possible — bacterial blight, guar's single biggest disease risk, is seed-borne, so clean certified seed is itself the most important disease-control step, not just an agronomic one.
- Spacing
- 45 to 50 cm between rows and 10 cm between plants for branched types such as HG 365, HG 563 and RGC-936; 30 cm between rows for a single-stem type like RGC-1066 (ICAR-based package on Vikaspedia)
- Seed treatment
- Treat seed with a fungicide such as carbendazim or thiram against soil-borne pathogens, and inoculate with Rhizobium and phosphate-solubilising bacteria (PSB) culture where the crop has not been grown recently on that land, to establish the nitrogen-fixing nodules that reduce the crop's own fertiliser need.
Sowing guide
Guar is rarely grown on the best land in a rotation — it is deliberately placed on the arid, marginal field a farmer would otherwise leave under-cropped, which is exactly where its very low input needs pay off.
- Best time
- At the monsoon onset in the first fortnight of July under rainfed conditions; a delay after 15 July cuts yield. Irrigated sowing can run to the last week of July. A summer crop is sown from the last week of February to the first week of March
- Row spacing
- 45–50 cm for branched types; 30 cm for single-stem RGC-1066
- Plant spacing
- 10 cm within the row
- Sowing depth
- 3–5 cm
- Method
- Line-sown directly into the field as soon as a genuinely reliable monsoon shower arrives; on the truly arid land guar is usually grown on, sowing promptly on that first good rain matters more than fine-tuning the exact spacing, since the crop's establishment depends on catching that early soil moisture
Fertilizer schedule
A split dose beats one large dose applied at sowing — nitrogen especially is lost to the air and to leaching if it all goes in on day one.
- 1
Basal (at sowing)
Day 0
A light basal dose of roughly 20 kg N and 40 kg P₂O₅ per hectare, placed about 5 cm below the seed, well below what a cereal needs, since guar fixes a meaningful share of its own nitrogen once root nodules establish.
- 2
No routine top-dressing or potash
Throughout
Most recommendations call for no nitrogen top-dressing and no routine potash on this drought-hardy legume; add K only where a soil test genuinely calls for it.
Irrigation schedule
1. Germination
Day 0–8
Relies entirely on the sowing-time monsoon shower for germination moisture; almost never separately irrigated at this stage.
2. Flowering to pod fill
40–75 days
Where irrigation is genuinely available, one life-saving watering during a severe dry spell at flowering or pod fill can meaningfully lift yield, though the great majority of the crop is grown with no irrigation at all through this period.
Critical stages
- Flowering
- Pod filling
Water-saving tips
- Guar is grown specifically because it does not need irrigation — treating it as a crop that requires a watering schedule defeats the reason it is planted on arid, marginal land in the first place.
- Where a farmer does have access to limited irrigation, saving it for a genuinely severe dry spell at flowering or pod fill, rather than watering routinely, gives the best return on that scarce water.
Weed management
Organic control
- One hand-weeding or hoeing at around 20–25 days after sowing handles most early competition, since the crop's canopy closes reasonably quickly once it branches.
- A second weeding is sometimes done on heavily weed-infested land, though many rainfed plantings on very marginal arid land manage with a single weeding.
Chemical control
- A pre-emergence herbicide cleared for use on guar or pulses generally can be used where weed pressure is heavy, though most of the crop is managed with hand or mechanical weeding alone given its low-input economics.
- Confirm any herbicide with your local KVK before spraying, since guar's thin per-acre margins make an off-label product a real financial risk for little gain.
Nutrient deficiency identification
What a shortage of each nutrient actually looks like on the plant, so you can tell a deficiency apart from a disease before you spray the wrong thing.
Nitrogen
Visible symptom
Pale, slow-growing plants, most often where Rhizobium nodulation has failed to establish on land new to the crop.
Phosphorus
Visible symptom
Weak early growth, poor nodulation and delayed flowering, especially on the very low-fertility arid soils this crop is typically grown on.
Potassium
Visible symptom
Weak stems more prone to lodging, though this is a secondary concern on a crop grown mainly for its ability to do without heavy nutrition.
Diseases to watch for
Symptoms, likely cause and what actually treats it — not just a spray name.
Bacterial blight
- Symptoms
- Small water-soaked leaf spots enlarging into angular, brown, necrotic lesions, often merging into larger blighted patches; can canker the stem and spot the pods.
- Cause
- The bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. cyamopsidis — seed-borne, and documented as guar's single biggest disease threat across Rajasthan and India.
- Treatment
- No reliable in-season cure; a preventive copper-based bactericide can slow spread in a wet, high-risk season where recommended.
- Prevention
- Always sow certified, disease-free seed — the single most important step, since the disease is seed-borne — rotate away from a field with a blight history, and destroy infected crop residue after harvest. See the dedicated guar bacterial blight guide for full detail.
Alternaria leaf blight
- Symptoms
- Dark brown, round to irregular spots on the leaf blade, 2–10 mm across, water-soaked at first, turning greyish to dark brown with faint concentric lines inside.
- Cause
- The fungus Alternaria cucumerina var. cyamopsidis, one of the guar belt's important biotic constraints alongside bacterial blight, anthracnose and dry root rot.
- Treatment
- A protective fungicide spray from the first spots limits further spread; confirm the current recommendation with your local KVK.
- Prevention
- Use clean seed, rotate crops away from a field with a history of the disease, and destroy infected debris after harvest.
Powdery mildew
- Symptoms
- A white, powdery, flour-like coating on the upper leaf surface and pods that spreads to cover the plant and yellows the leaves.
- Cause
- Erysiphales fungi, unusually favoured by dry weather with cool nights rather than the wet conditions most fungal diseases need.
- Treatment
- A sulphur-based or other CIB&RC-registered fungicide once symptoms appear, sprayed to cover the foliage thoroughly.
- Prevention
- Sow on time and avoid overly dense stands; some newer HAU releases carry improved disease tolerance relative to older lines.
Dry root rot (charcoal rot)
- Symptoms
- Sudden wilting and drying of plants in hot, dry, stressed conditions; the root and stem base show shredded tissue peppered with tiny black fungal specks.
- Cause
- Macrophomina phaseolina, a soil-borne fungus favoured by heat and moisture stress, affecting many pulses and legumes.
- Treatment
- No effective in-season cure once a plant has collapsed; remove and destroy affected plants to limit spread.
- Prevention
- Use treated seed, avoid moisture stress where any irrigation is available, and rotate away from a field with a history of the disease.
Pests to watch for
What to look for before the damage is visible, and organic options before you reach for a chemical.
Aphids
- Identification
- Small soft-bodied insects clustering on tender shoots, flowers and developing pods.
- Damage
- Sap loss weakens the plant and can cause premature drying of flower buds under heavy infestation.
- Organic control
- Neem oil sprays and conserving natural predators like ladybird beetles by avoiding early broad-spectrum insecticide use.
- Chemical control
- A recommended insecticide once colonies cross a damaging threshold; confirm the current product with your local KVK.
Jassids (leafhoppers)
- Identification
- Small, wedge-shaped green insects on the underside of leaves that hop away sideways when disturbed; the leaves of infested plants curl down and turn pale yellow, white or bronze.
- Damage
- Sap-sucking injects a toxin causing the classic "hopper burn" — bronzed, cupped leaf edges — and severe attack can wither the whole plant.
- Organic control
- Yellow sticky traps and avoiding unnecessary broad-spectrum spraying that removes natural predators.
- Chemical control
- A CIB&RC-registered insecticide once populations cross a damaging threshold.
Whitefly
- Identification
- Tiny white moth-like insects that rise in a cloud when the plant is disturbed, feeding on the underside of leaves.
- Damage
- Sap-sucking damage weakens the plant, and heavy infestation can lead to sooty mould on the honeydew it leaves behind.
- Organic control
- Yellow sticky traps and conserving natural predators.
- Chemical control
- A CIB&RC-registered insecticide against whitefly, rotated between modes of action.
Pod borer
- Identification
- Caterpillars, commonly Helicoverpa (gram pod borer) among other species, boring into developing pods.
- Damage
- Direct pod damage cuts both seed count and quality, and an unmanaged infestation can meaningfully reduce yield.
- Organic control
- Regular field scouting from flowering onward, hand-picking where infestation is light, and conserving natural predators by avoiding unnecessary broad-spectrum spraying.
- Chemical control
- A CIB&RC-registered insecticide once populations cross a damaging threshold; confirm the current recommendation with your local KVK.
Common mistakes to avoid
The mistakes that cost growers the most, ranked by how often they show up in the field — not in the order you might expect.
- 1
Saving farm seed year after year from a field that has shown bacterial blight symptoms.
Why it hurts
Bacterial blight is guar's single biggest documented disease threat and is seed-borne — saving seed from an infected field re-introduces the disease into the next planting regardless of how well the rest of the crop is managed.
- 2
Treating a wet, humid kharif spell as simply good rain for a drought-tolerant crop.
Why it hurts
Bacterial blight progression tracks weather closely — a longer or wetter spell during the season means noticeably worse blight, so a wet stretch is exactly when scouting matters most, not less.
- 3
Choosing the best available field for guar instead of the poorest, most arid one.
Why it hurts
Guar's whole economic case rests on giving a usable return from arid, marginal land other crops cannot use profitably — planting it on good land wastes that land's potential for a higher-value crop.
- 4
Assuming a tough, drought-tolerant crop needs no disease management at all.
Why it hurts
Bacterial blight, Alternaria leaf blight and dry root rot are all real, documented risks capable of meaningful yield loss regardless of how little water and fertiliser the crop otherwise asks for.
- 5
Choosing a variety on raw seed yield alone without considering gum content.
Why it hurts
Guar's real commercial value comes from the gum extracted from its seed, not just seed weight — a higher-gum-content variety like HG 563 can be worth growing even at a somewhat lower seed yield, depending on how the buyer prices the crop.
- 6
Delaying sowing well past the first reliable monsoon shower.
Why it hurts
The crop's establishment depends on catching that early soil moisture; a late, poorly timed sowing loses the moisture advantage the entire rainfed system depends on.
Harvesting
Harvest once most pods have dried and turned brown, typically 75–120 days after sowing depending on variety — plants are usually cut or uprooted rather than pods being picked individually, then dried further and threshed.
Signs it is ready
- Most pods turned brown and dry
- Leaves largely yellowed and dropped
- Seed rattles inside the pod when shaken
Tools
- Sickle for cutting, or hand-pulling on very light soils
- Tarpaulin for drying and threshing
- A simple thresher or bullock/tractor treading for larger quantities
Expected yield
Roughly 6–10 q/ha under typical rainfed farmer management; higher-yielding trial results (e.g. RGC-936 at about 9.2 q/ha) have been documented under good rainfed conditions
Post-harvest & storage
Storage
Dry threshed seed to a safe moisture level before storage, then keep it clean and dry in a sealed container — a damp or unsealed store risks quality loss just as it would for any pulse, and gum-processing buyers are particular about seed condition.
Packaging
Pack clean, well-dried seed in clean bags or containers kept off the floor in a dry store.
Transportation
Move dry seed protected from moisture; most guar moves through local mandis and traders in Rajasthan and Gujarat, with a genuine share also sold against NCDEX futures contracts rather than only spot mandi sale.
Shelf life
Several months to over a year for well-dried, properly stored seed; check stored lots periodically for insect damage, the same as any stored pulse.
Market prices
Today's mandi price near you, pulled live from the government's own Agmarknet data.
Live daily mandi prices from the government Agmarknet dataset.
Synced from data.gov.in (Agmarknet). Rates are ₹ per quintal.
Weather
Current conditions and a 5-day outlook for your selected location, with one line of stage-aware advice.
Pick your state for current conditions and a 5-day outlook.
Live data from Open-Meteo
Profit calculator
Your own cost sheet, expected yield and selling price — not ours.
Where the money goes
Share of the total cost per acre, using the calculator’s own default cost sheet below — adjust the numbers there to match your field and this picture will no longer apply to you exactly, but the ranking rarely changes.
- Land rent42% (₹4,500)
- Labour23% (₹2,500)
- Pesticide & weedicide9% (₹1,000)
- Machinery9% (₹1,000)
- Fertiliser7% (₹750)
- Seed5% (₹500)
- Interest2% (₹250)
- Irrigation2% (₹200)
Official downloads
Government and ICAR documents only — everything below is hosted on an official server.
Frequently asked questions
Why is guar seed valuable beyond its use as a pulse?
Its seed is crushed and refined into guar gum, a natural thickener used worldwide in food processing, textiles, paper, pharmaceuticals and — its single largest industrial use — as a viscosity agent in oil and gas well drilling. That global industrial demand is why guar seed trades actively on NCDEX as a real commodity, on top of ordinary mandi sale.
What is the single biggest threat to a guar crop?
Bacterial blight, caused by the seed-borne bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. cyamopsidis, is documented as guar's major disease across Rajasthan and India, ahead of Alternaria leaf blight, anthracnose and powdery mildew. Its severity tracks the weather closely, worsening in any wet, humid spell of the kharif season.
Which guar variety should I choose?
HG 2-20 is the guar variety the seed sector multiplies most (ICAR breeder-seed data), so certified seed is easiest to find; RGC-1038 (Guar Karan) and HG 365 are the next most regular. RGC-1066 (Guar Lathi) is the single-stem type for 30 cm rows and intercropping. HG 365 and HG 563 suit early or late sowing. Confirm the current local recommendation with your KVK.
Does guar need irrigation?
Almost never in practice — it is one of the most drought-tolerant legumes grown in India and is deliberately sown to run on monsoon soil moisture alone across nearly all of its growing area. Where a farmer does have limited irrigation, saving it for a genuinely severe dry spell at flowering or pod fill gives the best return, rather than watering on a routine schedule.
Does guar have an MSP?
No — guar is not a CACP-notified crop, so there is no minimum support price. It does have real, active price discovery beyond ordinary mandi trade, though, since guar seed and guar gum both trade as futures contracts on NCDEX, giving growers and traders a genuine market reference beyond a single local mandi price.
Is guar genuinely traded in mandis, or only through NCDEX?
Both — live Agmarknet records confirm genuine, high-volume mandi trade as "Guar Seed(Cluster Beans Seed)" at markets across Gujarat (Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana) and Rajasthan (Hanumangarh, Jaipur, Ganganagar, Barmer), with modal prices typically running close to the same day's NCDEX guar seed futures level. Confirm the current price at your nearest mandi before selling.
Still have questions?
The FAQs above cover the common ones. For anything specific to your field and soil, your nearest Krishi Vigyan Kendra is the authoritative answer.