Bengal Gram

Bengal gram is called Chickpea or Gram (Cicer aritinum L.) in South Asia and Garbanzo bean in most of the developed world. Bengal gram is a major pulse crop in India, widely grown for centuries and accounts for nearly 40 percent of the total pulse production. India is the major growing country of the world, accounting for 61.65 percent of the total world area under Bengal gram during 2002 and 68.13 percent of the total world production.

Bengal gram is widely appreciated as health food. It is a protein-rich supplement to cereal-based diets, especially to the poor in developing countries, where people are vegetarians or cannot afford animal protein. The pulse proteins are rich in lysine and have low sulfur containing amino acids. It offers the most practical means of eradicating protein malnutrition among vegetarian children and nursing mothers. Bengal gram has a very important role in human diet in our country.

The Bengal gram Vernacular (name) prevailing in different states are given below.

Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana

Chana

Punjab

Chhole

West Bengal

Chola

Orissa

Boot

Assam

Butmah

Andhra Pradesh

Sanagalu

Maharashtra

Harbara

Tamil Nadu

Kadalai

Kerala

Kadala

Karnataka

Kadale

Major Bengal gram producing states in India

Bengal gram is grown in winter season mainly in the northern and central region of the country. Due to increase in irrigated area, use of improved varieties and modern technology, its area is gradually shifting towards south-central region.

Important assembling markets of Bengal gram in different states of the country

Andhra Pradesh

Nandyal, Koilkuntla, Allagadda, Banaganpalli, Tandur, Guntakal, Hyderabad, Uravakonda, Guntur, Cuddapah.

Bihar

Bhagalpur, Munger, Patna city, Mokama, Barh, Aara, Buxar.

Delhi

Najafgarh, Narela.

Gujarat

Jamnagar, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Dahod, Mehsana.

Haryana

Hisar, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Fatehabad, Mahendragarh, Rohtak.

Karnataka

Gulbarga, Sedam, Dharwad, Bidar, Bangalore, Mysore, Raichur, Bellary.

Madhya Pradesh

Dewas, Sujalpur, Guna, Ashoknagar, Sagar, Bina, Deori, Panna, Narsinghpur, Kareli, Damoh, Neemaiach, Bhopal, Sirohj, Satna, Peparia, Indore, Ujjain.

Maharashtra

Ahmednagar, Nagpur, Murud, Jalana, Aurangabad, Solapur, Sangli, Pune, Baramati, Kalyan, Dhule.

Punjab

Faridkot, Sangrur, Mukatsar.

Rajasthan

Alwar, Kota, Srimadhopur, Gangapur city, Bikaner, Jaipur, Sikar.

Tamil Nadu

Coimbatore, The Nilgiris, Thanjavur, Tuticorin, Virudhnagar, Pudukottai,Tiruchirapalli.

Tripura

Thalcherra, Ramnagar, Jalai, Fulbari, Bogmara, Golaghati, Dharmanagar.

Uttar Pradesh

Kanpur, Lalitpur, Meerut, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, Mahoba, Bareilly.

West Bengal

Bolpur, Rampurhat, Katwa, Samsi, Kandi, Korimpore, Bethuadahari