ମୁଗ (ସବୁଜ ମୁଗ): India's short-duration pulse, summer cash crop
Moong or green gram (Vigna radiata) is grown across roughly 5.0 million hectares producing about 3.5 million tonnes (DES 2024-25). What sets moong apart from every other pulse is its 60-90 day duration — short enough to slot into otherwise empty windows: summer fallow between rabi wheat and kharif paddy (March-May in Punjab-Haryana-UP), and kharif rainfed in arid Rajasthan-Gujarat. The 2025-26 MSP is₹8,768/q (PIB 28 May 2025) — the highest of any pulse, reflecting CACP's effort to incentivise pulse area expansion. Procurement under NAFED PSS in 2024-25 reached ~5 LMT, mostly Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The summer moong revolution
The single most important moong story of the last decade is the summer moong expansion in Punjab-Haryana-Uttar Pradesh. Following rabi wheat harvest in early April, farmers historically left the field fallow until the kharif paddy nursery in late May — a 45-50 day idle window. Summer moong (60-day SML-668, Pusa-1431) fits perfectly: sow Apr-1 to Apr-15, harvest May-25 to Jun-10, plant kharif paddy nursery in parallel. The crop yields 8-12 q/ha at ₹7,500-8,800/q realisation, generating ₹50,000-80,000/ha of bonus revenue with negligible incremental water use because the residual rabi moisture and one canal/tubewell irrigation typically suffice. Punjab summer moong area has grown from negligible in 2015 to over 1.2 lakh hectares in 2024.
Geographic distribution
Rajasthan (35%): Jodhpur, Barmer, Bikaner kharif rainfed moong on arid sandy loam. The single largest concentration of any pulse area in India. Yields 5-8 q/ha rainfed. NAFED PSS procurement crossed 3 LMT in 2024-25.
Maharashtra (15%): Vidarbha and Marathwada kharif moong, often as a relay crop after early kharif. Yields 6-10 q/ha.
Karnataka (10%): Kalaburagi, Yadgir kharif moong on Vertisols.
Madhya Pradesh (9%): Bundelkhand summer moong + Malwa kharif moong. Pusa-1431 widely grown.
Andhra Pradesh (7%): Kurnool rabi summer moong on tank-irrigated tail-end lands; LGG-460 dominant.
Gujarat (6%): Kachchh kharif moong + Saurashtra summer moong. GM-4 Gujarat variety adopted.
Punjab + Haryana + UP: the new summer moong belt — 2-3% of national area but growing 25% YoY since 2018. SML-668 (PAU Ludhiana) dominant.
Variety pipeline — short, YMV-resistant, machine-harvestable
IPM-410-3 (Virat) (ICAR-IIPR, 2017) — 65-day super-short, YMV-resistant variety enabling spring/summer cultivation across NE-MP/UP/Bihar. 12 q/ha potential.SML-668 (PAU Ludhiana, 2007) — 60-day Punjab summer-moong workhorse; 12 q/ha; synchronous maturity allows mechanical harvest. Pusa-1431(IARI, 2018) — 60-day, multi-disease resistant, fits Delhi-Haryana-UP summer.GM-4 (Gujarat-4) (JAU Junagadh, 2010) — 70-day Saurashtra summer line.LGG-460 (ANGRAU Lam, 2005) — Andhra rabi line. ICRISAT and IIPR are pipeline-developing "super-short" 55-day lines for the next phase of rice-fallow and double-cropping expansion.
Agronomy — quick crop, low input, high return per day
Summer moong sowing: March 15 to April 15 in Punjab-Haryana, after wheat harvest. Kharif moong: June 25 to July 25, rainfall-triggered. Seed rate 15-20 kg/ha at 30 × 10 cm spacing. Seed treatment with Rhizobium + Trichoderma essential. NPK requirement 20:40:20 kg/ha — predominantly P from SSP 200 kg/ha. Summer moong needs 2-3 irrigations on 12-15 day intervals (typical for the 60-day cycle); kharif moong largely rainfed. The FAO-56 Kc curve (0.40 / 1.05 / 0.35) gives a seasonal ETc of ~280 mm — half of paddy.
Yellow Mosaic Virus (YMV, vectored by whitefly Bemisia tabaci) is the single largest biotic constraint. YMV-resistant varieties (SML-668, IPM-410, Pusa-1431) have transformed the economics — a 1990s-era susceptible variety could see 60-80% yield loss in heavy whitefly years; modern resistant lines limit loss to under 15%. Imidacloprid 17.8SL or thiamethoxam 25WG controls whitefly vectors when populations cross 6-8 adults per leaf.
Cost of cultivation and the highest-MSP-yet-lowest-realization paradox
CACP places moong C2 cost at ~₹6,200-6,800/q (2022-23 crop year). Against MSP ₹8,768/q, C2 margin is ~30-40%. But the open mandi realization is structurally below MSP because of duty-free imports from Myanmar — modal prices in Jodhpur, Indore, Latur typically range ₹7,200-8,000/q. NAFED PSS procurement at MSP is the price floor, but requires farmers to be FPO-linked or aware of mandi procurement notifications. The Rajasthan government's notified MSP-procurement mandis (Jodhpur, Barmer, Pali) reach about 60% of growers.
A Bharatpur summer moong farmer on 1 ha SML-668 yielding 10 q/ha at ₹7,800/q open mandi: gross ₹78,000, cash cost ~₹14,000/ha, net cash margin ₹64,000/ha (~₹25,600/acre) — earned in 60 days on what was previously fallow land. This is the highest cash-margin-per-day crop in the entire Indian agricultural portfolio, which explains its rapid uptake despite below-MSP realisations.
Schemes and the path forward
NFSM-Pulses provides seed mini-kits and machinery subsidies. PM-AASHA covers PSS at MSP. Punjab's Crop Diversification Programme (since 2020) pays ₹1,500/ha cash incentive for farmers shifting from paddy to summer moong + rabi wheat rotation — the climate adaptation logic is overwhelming, but adoption is held back by a thin local procurement infrastructure. PM-KISAN and PMFBY apply.
Beyond pulses — moong as a green-manure
Beyond the grain market, summer moong is a phenomenal green-manure crop. Its biomass (5-7 t/ha) tilled in before paddy transplanting adds 50-70 kg N/ha to the rice crop — equivalent to 100 kg/ha urea saved at ₹600/q. The 2025-26 Punjab Agricultural University extension push reframes summer moong as "dual-purpose": harvest grain for cash, plough remaining biomass for paddy. If the dual-purpose framing scales, summer moong area in Punjab-Haryana-UP could reach 4-5 lakh hectares by 2030 — closing a significant share of India's pulse import gap while saving fertiliser subsidies.