Rajma
Phaseolus vulgaris
Two details decide a rajma crop in the hills: sowing into the true kharif window so flowering and pod-fill land inside the cool, wet monsoon rather than a dry spell or early frost, and treating seed with Rhizobium rather than reaching first for a heavy nitrogen dose — this crop fixes much of its own nitrogen, and over-feeding it buys lodging and poor pod-set, not yield. The named hill types — Bhaderwah, Chakrata, Munsyari — carry a genuine price premium ordinary rajma never sees, so a good grower keeps that lot separate rather than mixing it into a general one at sale.
- Crop type
- Pulse (grain legume)
- Season
- Kharif (hills, main); spring in tarai (Feb–Mar)
- Suitable states
- 7 major states
- Growing duration
- 90–150 days (type/altitude dependent)
- Water requirement
- Moderate — sensitive to both drought and waterlogging
- Temperature
- 18–27°C for growth; frost-sensitive at flowering
- Soil type
- Well-drained sandy loam to loam
- Difficulty level
- Moderate
- Expected yield
- 8–15 q/ha
- Storage
- 8–12 months dry, cool storage
Overview
Rajma (Phaseolus vulgaris) — the dry, kidney-shaped seed of the common bean — is grown across India as two distinct crops sharing one botanical species. In the high hills of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir it is a kharif crop, sown with the monsoon's onset in June–July into a genuinely cool growing season; in the warmer tarai belt below and on the plains of Maharashtra and elsewhere, it is sown as a spring or pre-monsoon crop in February–March, ahead of the summer heat. The same species grown for its green, immature pod rather than the dry seed is called French bean, a different crop on this site.
What sets rajma apart from most pulses is that origin genuinely changes the price. Bhaderwah Rajma from the high-altitude terraces of Doda district, Jammu & Kashmir, carries an official Geographical Indication (GI) tag and sells at a real premium over an unbranded lot; Chakrata Rajma from Dehradun district, Munsyari Rajma from Pithoragarh, Harsil Rajma from Uttarkashi and Joshimath Rajma from Chamoli each have their own following in Uttarakhand, prized for size, colour, texture or cooking time in a way ordinary market rajma is not. Keeping a named-origin lot separate through harvest, cleaning and sale — rather than mixing it into a general one — is worth real money for a hill grower in a way it is not for most other pulses.
The crop turns on three things done right — sowing into the correct kharif or spring window for the field's altitude, inoculating seed with Rhizobium so the crop fixes much of its own nitrogen instead of needing it all from a bag, and harvesting before over-mature pods shatter in the field. This page follows the crop in the order you will actually meet it — land, seed, sowing, nutrition, water, protection, harvest, sale.
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 dibbled or drilled at 45 × 10–15 cm, 4–5 cm deep, treated with fungicide and inoculated with Rhizobium phaseoli and PSB just before sowing — inoculation, not fertilizer, is what sets up the crop's own nitrogen supply.
- Day 6–12
Germination
Seedlings emerge and unfold their first true leaves; this is also the window bean fly (stem fly) maggots do their damage, so a treated seed lot pays off early.
- Day 20–35
Vegetative growth
Branching and canopy establishment, with root nodules forming and beginning to fix nitrogen around three weeks in — the first hand weeding falls here.
- Day 35–45
Flowering
White, pink or purple flowers open; this is the crop's single most moisture-sensitive stage, where both drought and waterlogging drop flowers and cut pod number.
- Day 45–65
Pod formation and filling
Pods lengthen and seeds inside swell and fill; the second hand weeding and the pod-borer watch both matter most here.
- Day 90–110
Pod maturity
Pods turn from green to their mature straw, tan or purplish colour and begin to rattle when shaken as the leaves yellow and drop.
- Day 100–150
Harvest
When 80–90% of pods have matured and dried, for a hill kharif crop 100–130 days after sowing or a tarai spring crop closer to 90–120 days.
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
Grown here
Climate requirements
Rajma is grown as two distinct crops on this site's map: a kharif crop in the high hills of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir, sown with the onset of the monsoon into a genuinely cool growing season, and a spring/pre-monsoon crop in the warmer tarai belt below, sown February–March before the summer heat sets in. The two windows never overlap — altitude and season decide which one applies to a given field.
Ideal temperature
18–27°C suits growth best; rajma is more cold-tolerant during establishment than most kharif legumes, which is what lets it work as a hill crop at all, but frost at flowering blackens flowers and pods, and a hot, dry spell at pod-fill causes flower and pod drop — the reason it is grown as the main kharif crop in the cool high hills and pushed to spring/pre-monsoon sowing in the warmer tarai belt below.
Rainfall
A moderate, evenly spread monsoon through vegetative growth and flowering suits the hill crop best; both a dry spell at pod-fill and a waterlogged spell at any stage cut yield hard, and heavy, continuous rain right at flowering also washes out pollination and drops flowers.
Humidity
Moderate is best; high humidity through flowering and pod-fill sharply raises anthracnose, angular leaf spot and rust risk, all three of which spread fastest in a wet, humid canopy.
Sunlight
Full sun; the hill kharif crop benefits from the long early-monsoon daylength through its vegetative phase, while a dense, humid canopy from too-close spacing shelters the same fungal diseases the crop is otherwise prone to.
Soil requirements
A soil test matters here mainly for phosphorus and sulphur, both of which drive nodulation and pod-fill, and for confirming the field's drainage class before sowing — rajma's tolerance for wet feet is genuinely lower than most other kharif pulses.
Suitable soil
Well-drained sandy loam to loam with good organic matter; rajma cannot stand heavy, waterlogging-prone clay, which suffocates the root and nodule system a legume depends on for its own nitrogen supply.
pH range
6.0–7.5
Drainage
Very good — even brief waterlogging kills the Rhizobium nodules the crop needs and opens the door to root rot, the single most damaging soil-borne problem in wet hill and tarai fields alike.
Organic matter
Medium, built up over seasons rather than supplied as a single heavy dose — like most pulses, rajma responds better to phosphorus and a healthy nodule population than to nitrogen-heavy manuring, which pushes leaf growth at the expense of flowering and pod-set.
Land preparation
Same four steps whichever region you are in — only the timing shifts with the sowing window.
- 1
Field cleaning and rotation
Remove the previous crop's residue and weeds, and rotate out of rajma and other legumes on fields with a root rot or wilt history — repeated bean cropping on the same hill terrace builds up soil-borne inoculum fast.
- 2
Ploughing and harrowing
One deep ploughing followed by two harrowings or plankings brings the soil to a fine, well-drained tilth; on hill terraces the slope already helps drainage, but a compacted layer just below the surface still waterlogs the root zone in a heavy monsoon spell.
- 3
Ridges or raised beds on flatter fields
Where the field is flat rather than terraced — most of the tarai spring crop — forming ridges or raised beds protects the crop from waterlogging through heavy rain or over-irrigation.
- 4
Well-rotted FYM incorporation
Working 8–10 tonnes/ha of well-rotted farmyard manure into the last ploughing builds organic matter without the excess nitrogen that fresh manure, or a heavy urea habit, would otherwise supply to a crop that is meant to fix much of its own.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
VL Rajma 125 A bold-seeded, bush-type variety from ICAR-VPKAS, Almora, bred for timely kharif sowing in the Uttarakhand hills, with large, uniform seed (around 40 g per 100 seeds) that fetches a better retail price than small-seeded local lines. | 110–120 days | 12–15 q/ha | Moderate field tolerance to bean rust | Uttarakhand (hills) | Timely kharif sowing, bold-seed market |
VL Rajma 63 An earlier bush-type release from ICAR-VPKAS than VL Rajma 125, suited to shorter-season hill pockets and mid-altitude fields where the growing window is tighter. | 100–110 days | 10–13 q/ha | Standard exposure to rust and anthracnose | Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh (hills) | Shorter hill season, mid-altitude fields |
PDR-14 (Uday) A short-duration, red-variegated-seeded variety from ICAR-IIPR, Kanpur, bred with tolerance to Bean Common Mosaic Virus — the most consistently damaging viral disease of the crop — and suited to both hill and plains sowing. | 90–100 days | 10–12 q/ha | Tolerant to Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV) | Uttar Pradesh, Punjab (plains); also grown in hills | Short season, BCMV-prone fields |
HUR-15 A widely grown, red-seeded variety from Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, developed for the Uttarakhand tarai belt's spring/pre-monsoon sowing window. | 95–105 days | 10–14 q/ha | Standard exposure to angular leaf spot | Uttarakhand (tarai) | Spring/pre-monsoon tarai sowing |
HUR-137 A later release from GB Pant University, higher-yielding than HUR-15 on well-managed tarai fields, with bold, dark red seed favoured in local markets. | 100–110 days | 12–15 q/ha | Standard exposure | Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh (tarai/plains) | Bold-seed tarai market |
Amber A bold, light-coloured seeded variety grown across the north Indian hills and plains, valued for its cooking quality and long-standing market recognition under the Amber name. | 100–115 days | 10–13 q/ha | No specific bred-in resistance | Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir | General-purpose bold-seed market |
- Seed rate
- 80–100 kg/ha of whole dry seed for bush-type varieties, sown as a continuous row; pole types trained up a stake, maize intercrop or trellis need far less — around 40–50 kg/ha — since they are planted at wider hill-to-hill spacing rather than a dense row.
- Certified seed
- Use certified or truthfully-labelled seed from a known source each season rather than farm-saved grain — Bean Common Mosaic Virus travels inside the seed coat invisibly, so a visually healthy-looking farm-saved lot can still carry the virus forward into the next crop.
- Spacing
- 45 cm row-to-row, 10–15 cm plant-to-plant for bush types, sown 4–5 cm deep; pole types are set at roughly 1 m × 1 m in hills of 3–4 plants, trained up a stake, maize intercrop or trellis.
- Seed treatment
- Treat seed with a fungicide such as carbendazim or thiram against seed-borne anthracnose, then inoculate with Rhizobium phaseoli and phosphate-solubilising bacteria (PSB) culture just before sowing — inoculation is the difference between a crop that fixes much of its own nitrogen and one that needs all of it from a bag.
Sowing guide
The kharif hill crop is timed to land its flowering and pod-fill inside the cooler, wetter part of the monsoon while still finishing before early-autumn frost at higher elevations. Mistiming this window in either direction — not disease or pests — is the single biggest yield-limiting decision a rajma grower makes.
- Best time
- Mid-June to mid-July with the onset of the monsoon for the main kharif crop in the high hills of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir; February–March, ahead of the summer heat, for the spring/pre-monsoon crop in the warmer tarai belt below. The two windows never overlap, and sowing into the wrong one for a given altitude costs the crop either a wet, disease-prone flowering or a frost- and heat-shortened season.
- Row spacing
- 45 cm
- Plant spacing
- 10–15 cm
- Sowing depth
- 4–5 cm
- Method
- Dibbled or drilled by hand or seed drill into a well-prepared, weed-free seedbed at the correct spacing and depth; on hill terraces, sowing often follows the contour to slow monsoon run-off and hold moisture in the root zone.
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 dose
At sowing
Full phosphorus and potash plus a starter dose of nitrogen — a common recommendation is 20:60:40 kg/ha N:P₂O₅:K₂O — worked into the seedbed at sowing; the low nitrogen figure is deliberate, since a well-nodulated crop fixes most of the rest itself.
- 2
Rhizobium and PSB inoculation
Seed treatment, just before sowing
Rhizobium phaseoli and phosphate-solubilising bacteria (PSB) culture coated onto the seed right before sowing, not applied later — this is what makes the low basal nitrogen dose sufficient once nodules form roughly three weeks in.
- 3
Optional top dressing
30–35 days after sowing, at flower initiation
A light nitrogen top dressing only where the crop shows pale, nitrogen-starved growth and nodulation looks poor on inspection — otherwise unnecessary, since extra nitrogen at this stage pushes leaf growth over flowering and pod-set.
- 4
Sulphur and zinc
At basal dose, on soils testing deficient
20 kg/ha sulphur and 25 kg/ha zinc sulphate at sowing on deficient soils; sulphur supports nodulation and seed quality, and zinc is a common shortfall on the light, heavily cereal-cropped hill and tarai soils rajma is often rotated into.
Irrigation schedule
1. Establishment
At sowing, or 3–5 days after for the tarai spring crop
The kharif hill crop is largely rainfed on monsoon moisture from sowing; the spring tarai crop, sown ahead of the rains, needs a light irrigation at or soon after sowing to ensure even germination.
2. Vegetative growth to flowering
25–45 days after sowing
A dry spell here — common in a weak monsoon or a gap between spring irrigations — checks growth and delays flowering; supplement with irrigation wherever a rainfall gap exceeds 8–10 days.
3. Pod formation and filling
45–75 days after sowing
The single most water-sensitive stage of the crop; both moisture stress and waterlogging here directly cut pod number and seed fill, and losses at this stage cannot be recovered later.
Critical stages
- Flowering (35–45 days) — moisture stress here drops flowers and cuts pod number before pods even form
- Pod formation and filling (45–75 days) — sets final seed size and yield
Water-saving tips
- On rainfed hill kharif fields, contour or terrace bunding to hold monsoon rainfall in the root zone matters more than any irrigation schedule
- Where irrigation is available, time it to flowering and pod-fill rather than spreading it evenly across the season — this crop tolerates a dry vegetative phase far better than a dry pod-fill
- Never let water stand on the field even briefly — rajma's tolerance for waterlogging is lower than most kharif pulses, and standing water kills the nodules the crop depends on
Weed management
Common weeds
Organic control
- One hand weeding around 20–25 days after sowing and a second at 35–40 days, just before flowering, covers most of the crop's weed-sensitive window
- Earthing up at the first weeding supports the lower branches against lodging and helps drainage on hill terraces
- A stale seedbed ahead of sowing knocks down the first monsoon weed flush cheaply
Chemical control
- Pre-emergence: pendimethalin within 1–2 days of sowing controls the early kharif weed flush
- Post-emergence: quizalofop-p-ethyl where grassy weeds such as Echinochloa dominate, applied carefully to avoid drift onto broadleaf crops in nearby fields
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 yellow-green older leaves and stunted early growth, most visible before nodulation is fully established around three weeks after sowing — usually a sign of missed or failed Rhizobium inoculation rather than simply low soil nitrogen.
Phosphorus
Visible symptom
Dark green, stunted plants with poor root and nodule development and delayed flowering — phosphorus drives nodulation directly, so a deficiency here cuts the crop's own nitrogen supply as well as showing its own symptom.
Potassium
Visible symptom
Yellowing and scorching at the margins of older leaves, weaker pod fill, and more lodging in a crop that already tends to fall over under a heavy pod load.
Sulphur
Visible symptom
Uniform pale yellowing of the younger leaves, distinct from nitrogen deficiency's older-leaf yellowing — sulphur is needed for nodule function and seed protein quality as much as for general growth.
Zinc
Visible symptom
Interveinal chlorosis and shortened internodes on younger leaves, most common on the light, heavily cereal-cropped hill and tarai soils rajma is often rotated into.
Diseases to watch for
Symptoms, likely cause and what actually treats it — not just a spray name.
Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV)
- Symptoms
- Mottled light and dark green mosaic patterning on leaves, downward leaf curling, vein banding, and stunted, bushy plants carrying fewer and smaller pods; affected pods show faint mottling and the seed inside is often mildly discoloured.
- Cause
- Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), a potyvirus that is both seed-borne — carried inside infected seed invisibly — and spread in the field afterwards by aphids feeding on infected plants.
- Treatment
- No cure once a plant is infected; rogue out and destroy infected plants early to reduce the source aphids spread from through the rest of the field.
- Prevention
- Sow certified, virus-tested seed or a tolerant variety such as PDR-14 (Uday) rather than farm-saved grain, and control aphids early since they are the field-spread vector.
Anthracnose
- Symptoms
- Dark brown to black, sunken lesions on pods, stems and leaf veins, often carrying a pinkish spore mass in humid weather; badly affected pods shrivel and the seed inside is discoloured and shrunken.
- Cause
- Fungus Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, seed-borne and favoured by cool, wet weather during flowering and pod-fill — one of the most damaging diseases of the crop in a wet monsoon year.
- Treatment
- Spray mancozeb or carbendazim at first appearance, repeating on a 10-day interval through a wet spell.
- Prevention
- Treat seed with a fungicide before sowing, never save seed from an affected field, and rotate out of beans for at least two seasons on badly affected land.
Angular Leaf Spot
- Symptoms
- Angular, grey-brown lesions bounded by the leaf veins, giving affected leaves a patchwork look; undersides show a fine greyish mould growth in humid conditions, and heavily spotted leaves yellow and drop early.
- Cause
- Fungus Pseudocercospora griseola, favoured by warm, humid weather and spread by wind-blown spores and infected residue; a 2019–20 Kashmir valley survey found it present at meaningful levels across every location surveyed.
- Treatment
- Spray mancozeb or chlorothalonil at first appearance, repeating through a favourable humid spell.
- Prevention
- Wider spacing for airflow, seed treatment before sowing, and destroying infected crop residue after harvest rather than ploughing it back in.
Rust
- Symptoms
- Small, reddish-brown, powdery pustules mainly on the leaf underside, surrounded by a pale halo; pustules turn dark brown to black late in the season, and a heavy attack dries and kills leaves early, cutting pod-fill.
- Cause
- Fungus Uromyces appendiculatus, a wind-dispersed rust favoured by moderate temperatures and high humidity, capable of severe yield loss where a susceptible variety meets a favourable, humid spell.
- Treatment
- Spray propiconazole or mancozeb at first appearance, repeating on a 10–12 day interval.
- Prevention
- Grow a variety with field tolerance where available, avoid dense sowing that keeps foliage wet longer, and remove volunteer bean plants and crop debris that carry the fungus between seasons.
Root Rot Complex
- Symptoms
- Yellowing, wilting seedlings or plants that topple easily, with reddish-brown to black lesions at the collar and on the roots when pulled up and examined; a patchy, gradually spreading die-off across low or poorly drained parts of the field.
- Cause
- A soil-borne fungal complex — chiefly Fusarium solani and Rhizoctonia solani — that builds up in waterlogged or continuously bean-cropped soil and infects through the root and collar.
- Treatment
- No in-season cure for infected plants; drench surviving plants at the margin of an infected patch with a Trichoderma-based bio-fungicide or carbendazim to slow spread.
- Prevention
- Treat seed with Trichoderma or carbendazim, ensure genuinely good drainage rather than merely adequate, and rotate out of rajma and other legumes for at least two seasons on fields with a known history.
Pests to watch for
What to look for before the damage is visible, and organic options before you reach for a chemical.
Bean Fly (Stem Fly)
- Identification
- Tiny black flies laying eggs on young leaves; the real damage is done by pale, legless maggots that mine down inside the stem toward the base, visible as a thin dark tunnel and a swelling at the stem base when split open.
- Damage
- The most dangerous pest at the seedling stage — a heavily mined stem snaps or wilts and kills the plant outright, and an early, unnoticed infestation can force a costly resowing of the field.
- Organic control
- Sow at the recommended time so seedlings pass through the vulnerable stage quickly, earth up around the stem base to encourage rooting above the damage, and remove and destroy badly wilted seedlings.
- Chemical control
- A seed treatment with imidacloprid or thiamethoxam before sowing protects the seedling through its most vulnerable first three weeks; follow with a foliar spray of a systemic insecticide if damage is still spreading after emergence.
Pod Borer Complex (Helicoverpa, Maruca)
- Identification
- Caterpillars — the green-to-brown Helicoverpa armigera, or the smaller, paler Maruca vitrata that webs leaves and flowers together — feeding on flowers and boring circular holes into pods to eat the developing seed inside.
- Damage
- Direct seed loss inside the pod that is invisible from outside until the pod is opened, making the pest easy to under-estimate until threshing reveals the damage; a heavy attack at flowering also cuts pod-set directly.
- Organic control
- Pheromone traps for Helicoverpa monitoring, hand-picking egg masses and early larvae where the field is small enough, and conserving natural parasitoids by avoiding unnecessary early broad-spectrum sprays.
- Chemical control
- Spray a suitable insecticide such as emamectin benzoate or chlorantraniliprole at the first sign of flower or pod damage, timed to when larvae are small and before they have bored into the pod where sprays cannot reach them.
Aphids (Aphis craccivora)
- Identification
- Small, soft-bodied black to dark brown insects clustering on the undersides of young leaves, shoot tips and flower buds, often attended by ants.
- Damage
- Direct sap-sucking stunts young growth and shrivels flower buds, and aphids are the field vector for Bean Common Mosaic Virus — an aphid problem left unchecked becomes a virus problem within the same season.
- Organic control
- A strong jet of water to dislodge light infestations, conserving ladybird beetle and other natural predator populations, and a neem-based spray on a light-to-moderate build-up.
- Chemical control
- Spray a systemic insecticide such as imidacloprid or thiamethoxam where the infestation is heavy or virus symptoms are already appearing nearby.
Whitefly (Bemisia tabaci)
- Identification
- Tiny white-winged insects that fly up in a small cloud when a leaf is disturbed, feeding on the undersides of leaves and excreting sticky honeydew that blackens with sooty mould.
- Damage
- Sap-sucking weakens the plant directly and the honeydew and sooty mould it leaves behind cut photosynthesis further; like aphids, whitefly also transmits viral diseases between plants.
- Organic control
- Yellow sticky traps for monitoring and mass-trapping, and avoiding unnecessary broad-spectrum sprays that kill the parasitic wasps and other predators that keep whitefly in check naturally.
- Chemical control
- A systemic insecticide such as imidacloprid where populations are building fast, applied to reach the underside of the canopy where whitefly actually feeds.
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
Sowing outside the true kharif or spring window for the field's altitude
Why it hurts
Too early into a hill field and a late dry spell or early heat catches flowering; too late and pod-fill runs into either heavy monsoon rain or an early-autumn frost — mistiming this window costs more yield than any single disease or pest on this page.
- 2
Skipping Rhizobium and PSB seed inoculation
Why it hurts
The crop is left to draw all its nitrogen from the soil and the fertilizer bag instead of fixing much of it itself, which both raises the fertilizer bill and typically still yields less than a properly inoculated, lightly fed crop.
- 3
Applying a heavy nitrogen dose on the assumption that more fertilizer means more yield
Why it hurts
Excess nitrogen on a legume pushes lush leaf growth at the expense of flowering and pod-set, and the taller, softer canopy it produces lodges more easily under a full pod load.
- 4
Sowing farm-saved seed year after year without testing or treatment
Why it hurts
Bean Common Mosaic Virus travels inside the seed coat invisibly; a farm-saved lot that looked perfectly healthy at last harvest can seed a virus epidemic the following season.
- 5
Ignoring drainage on flat or low-lying parts of the field
Why it hurts
Rajma's tolerance for standing water is lower than most kharif pulses; even brief waterlogging kills the Rhizobium nodules the crop depends on and opens the door directly to root rot.
- 6
Skipping the two hand weedings around 20–25 and 35–40 days after sowing
Why it hurts
Weed competition through flowering directly cuts pod number, and ground lost to weeds in this window cannot be recovered by weeding later.
- 7
Spraying broadly at the first sign of any insect rather than identifying the pest first
Why it hurts
Kills the aphid predators and pod-borer parasitoids that would otherwise hold both pests down for free, and can trigger a resurgence worse than the original problem.
- 8
Delaying harvest until every last pod is bone dry
Why it hurts
Over-mature pods shatter in the field or during handling, and shattering losses on a crop harvested late in a dry spell can run into a meaningful share of the standing yield.
- 9
Mixing a named-origin lot — Bhaderwah, Chakrata, Munsyari and similar — with ordinary rajma at sale
Why it hurts
These hill-origin types command a genuine price premium precisely because buyers can trust the lot's origin; mixing it into a general lot forfeits that premium for the whole batch, not just the mixed-in portion.
- 10
Storing threshed seed at high moisture or in a sealed, unventilated container
Why it hurts
Damp grain moulds and heats in storage, and pulse beetle (bruchid) infestation multiplies far faster in warm, poorly aerated storage than in a dry, ventilated one.
Harvesting
When roughly 80–90% of pods have turned from green to their mature straw, tan or purplish colour and rattle when shaken, and the leaves have mostly yellowed and dropped — usually 90–150 days after sowing depending on variety and altitude. Waiting for every last pod to dry risks shattering losses in the earliest-maturing pods.
Signs it is ready
- Pods change from green to straw, tan or purplish and turn dry and papery on the outside
- Seeds rattle audibly inside the pod when shaken
- Leaves have mostly yellowed and dropped, and the plant looks spent rather than actively growing
Tools
- Hand-pulling or cutting whole plants close to the ground and stacking them to dry further for a few days before threshing, the common method on small hill holdings
- Threshing by beating dried plants on a hard surface or tarpaulin, or with a pulse thresher on larger, mechanised holdings
- Winnowing to separate seed from pod husk and trash before grading and bagging
Expected yield
8–15 q/ha under normal rainfed hill or irrigated tarai management; a bold-seeded variety such as VL Rajma 125 or HUR-137, sown on time with good pod-borer control, reaches the upper end of that range.
Post-harvest & storage
Storage
Dry threshed seed down to about 10–12% moisture before storage — a bite test or a moisture meter both work — then store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated space rather than a damp room; seed stored too wet moulds and heats, and grain stored carelessly loses both cooking and germination quality.
Packaging
Clean, dry jute or woven polypropylene bags for retail-bound rajma; a hermetic (airtight) bag or bin for seed being held over for the next season's sowing, since it excludes the pulse beetle far better than a woven sack.
Transportation
Move only fully dried, cleaned grain — a damp or trash-laden lot heats in transit, and both grade and price fall the moment a mandi buyer sees discoloured or mouldy beans in a sample.
Shelf life
8–12 months in cool, dry, ventilated storage for table-grade grain; seed intended for the next season's sowing keeps its germination best in the first 8–10 months and should not be carried over multiple seasons.
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.
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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 rent32% (₹10,000)
- Labour21% (₹6,500)
- Seed18% (₹5,500)
- Machinery8% (₹2,500)
- Fertiliser7% (₹2,200)
- Pesticide & weedicide6% (₹2,000)
- Irrigation5% (₹1,500)
- Interest3% (₹800)
Official downloads
Government and ICAR documents only — everything below is hosted on an official server.
ICAR-VPKAS — Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Almora
Package of practices, VL Rajma variety details and hill-agronomy advisories from the ICAR institute mandated for hill and mountain agriculture, including rajma.
Farmer Portal — crop advisories
Government of India's farmer portal, including season-specific advisories and market information.
Soil Health Card portal
Get a free, crop-wise fertilizer recommendation for your field — including a phosphorus and sulphur reading that matters directly for nodulation — before finalising the fertilizer schedule above.
mKisan — SMS advisory portal
Register for free SMS advisories timed to your crop stage and district.
Frequently asked questions
When should I sow rajma?
Mid-June to mid-July with the onset of the monsoon for the main kharif crop in the high hills of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir; February–March, ahead of the summer heat, for the spring/pre-monsoon crop in the warmer tarai belt below. The two windows never overlap — sow into the wrong one for your altitude and either flowering runs into heavy rain or the season is cut short by frost or heat.
How much seed do I need per acre?
Roughly 32–40 kg per acre (80–100 kg/ha) for bush-type varieties sown as a continuous row. Pole types trained up a stake or trellis need far less — around 16–20 kg per acre (40–50 kg/ha) — since they are planted at wider hill-to-hill spacing instead.
Rajma is a legume — why does it still need Rhizobium inoculation?
A legume fixes its own nitrogen only once the right Rhizobium bacteria have colonised its roots and formed active nodules, and many hill and tarai soils do not carry enough of the specific strain naturally. Coating the seed with Rhizobium phaseoli culture just before sowing, alongside PSB for phosphorus, is what makes a low basal nitrogen dose enough — skip it, and the crop draws everything from the soil and fertilizer bag instead.
What fertilizer dose should I use, and why is the nitrogen figure so low?
A common recommendation is 20:60:40 kg/ha of N:P₂O₅:K₂O, with the phosphorus and potash and a small starter dose of nitrogen applied at sowing, plus 20 kg/ha sulphur and 25 kg/ha zinc sulphate on deficient soils. The nitrogen figure looks low next to a cereal because a well-inoculated, well-nodulated rajma crop fixes most of its remaining nitrogen need itself — a heavier dose mostly buys excess leaf growth and lodging, not yield.
Does rajma have an MSP?
No — rajma has no Minimum Support Price. It is not one of the pulses the government notifies MSP for each season (unlike gram, tur, moong and urad); it trades entirely on the open market, like garlic, chilli and turmeric. This matters most for the named-origin hill types, whose price is set by buyer demand for that specific origin rather than any floor price. The live mandi price on this page is the most useful real-time signal for deciding when to sell.
Why does Bhaderwah, Chakrata or Munsyari rajma sell for so much more than ordinary rajma?
These are named-origin hill types grown at specific high-altitude locations — Bhaderwah in Doda district, Jammu & Kashmir (which carries an official Geographical Indication tag), Chakrata in Dehradun district and Munsyari in Pithoragarh, both in Uttarakhand — where altitude, soil and climate give the beans a distinct size, colour, texture or shorter cooking time that buyers specifically seek out and pay more for. The premium is genuine, but it depends on the buyer being able to trust the lot's stated origin, which is why keeping such a lot separate rather than mixing it into general rajma at sale matters so much.
Why are my rajma leaves mottled and curling downward?
This points to Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV), spread both through infected seed and by aphids feeding in the field. There is no cure once a plant is infected — rogue out and destroy affected plants to slow spread, control aphids early, and next season sow certified, virus-tested seed or a tolerant variety such as PDR-14 (Uday) rather than farm-saved grain.
What are those grey-brown patchy patterns and reddish spots on my rajma leaves?
Grey-brown, angular patches bounded by the leaf veins point to angular leaf spot; small reddish-brown powdery pustules, mainly on the leaf underside, point to rust. Both spread fastest in warm, humid weather. Spray mancozeb or chlorothalonil for angular leaf spot, or propiconazole or mancozeb for rust, at first appearance — see the Diseases section for the full programme.
What is bean fly (stem fly), and why is it dangerous to young seedlings?
Bean fly maggots tunnel down inside the stem toward the base soon after germination, and a heavily mined stem simply snaps or wilts and kills the seedling outright — the most dangerous pest window in the crop's life, since a bad infestation can force a resowing of the whole field. A seed treatment with imidacloprid or thiamethoxam before sowing protects the seedling through this vulnerable first three weeks.
How much irrigation does rajma need overall?
The kharif hill crop is largely rainfed on monsoon moisture; the spring tarai crop needs a light irrigation at sowing and then regular watering wherever a rainfall or irrigation gap exceeds 8–10 days. Flowering (35–45 days) and pod formation and filling (45–75 days) are the two stages where moisture stress or waterlogging does the most damage — irrigation, where available, is best timed to these rather than spread evenly across the season.
What yield can I realistically expect from rajma?
8–15 quintals per hectare under normal rainfed hill or irrigated tarai management. A bold-seeded variety such as VL Rajma 125 or HUR-137, sown on time with good pod-borer control and proper Rhizobium inoculation, reaches the upper end of that range.
When should I harvest rajma, and what are the signs?
When roughly 80–90% of pods have turned from green to their mature straw, tan or purplish colour and rattle when shaken, usually 90–150 days after sowing depending on variety and altitude. Do not wait for every last pod to dry — the earliest-maturing pods shatter and shed seed in the field if the crop is left standing too long.
How should I dry and store rajma so it keeps and does not get bruchid-damaged?
Dry threshed seed to about 10–12% moisture, then store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated space — never a damp or sealed room. For table-grade grain, clean jute or woven polypropylene bags in ventilated storage keep it sound for 8–12 months; for seed being held over for the next season, a hermetic (airtight) bag or bin excludes the pulse beetle far better than an ordinary sack.
Can I insure my rajma crop, and does it qualify for PM-KISAN?
Rajma is covered under PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana) where it is in your state's notified kharif crop list, and as a food/pulse crop the farmer's premium is capped at 2% of the sum insured for the kharif season — lower than the 5% cap that applies to commercial and horticultural crops. PM-KISAN is not crop-specific — any eligible landholding farmer family qualifies. Check your state's seasonal notification and cut-off dates.
Which rajma variety should I grow?
For timely kharif sowing in the Uttarakhand hills, VL Rajma 125 and VL Rajma 63 from ICAR-VPKAS are the dependable, purpose-bred choices. For a short season or a BCMV-prone field, PDR-14 (Uday) from ICAR-IIPR adds virus tolerance. For the tarai spring window, HUR-15 and the bolder-seeded HUR-137 from GB Pant University are the local standards, and Amber remains a solid general-purpose bold-seed choice across the hills and plains. Where you can source certified planting material for a named-origin type such as Bhaderwah, Chakrata or Munsyari and your altitude matches, that local landrace is worth growing for the premium alone — match the variety to your altitude, season and market rather than any single universal choice.
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.