Khejri (Prosopis cineraria) is the native tree of the Thar and the rest of India's arid zone (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, parts of the south), and it works where rainfall is about 150 to 500 mm. The money crop is the tender pod, sold dried as sangri, and a budded, thornless variety such as Thar Shobha from ICAR-CIAH, Bikaner can bear from the third year, while seedling trees take 8 to 10 years.

In Rajasthan, cutting khejri is restricted by law, so the question for most farmers is not whether to cut it but how to manage and add to trees already on the farm. Dried sangri sells for far more than fresh pods, but the harvest window is only about two weeks a year.

Where it grows and what it needs

  • Climate: all arid land forms except hills and saline depressions with 150 to 500 mm average rain carry good khejri density, per ICAR-CIAH. It flowers and pods in the dry months of March to June and tolerates both frost and extreme heat (arid zone range from about -2.5°C to 49.9°C).
  • Soil: sandy desert soils. It is deep-rooted, nitrogen-fixing and casts light shade, so companion crops such as cotton and henna are grown beneath it without much competition for moisture.
  • States: traditional in western Rajasthan; Thar Shobha cultivation is reported to be spreading in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana.

Varieties and planting material

VarietyReleased byTraits
Thar ShobhaICAR-CIAH, BikanerDwarf, thornless, regular bearer, uniform pods, good leaf fodder; bears from the third year when budded
Thar AmrutaICAR-CIAH, BikanerDwarf, regular bearer; ask CIAH or your KVK for current planting material
  • Seed-raised trees are variable and bear after 8 to 10 years. Micro-propagation and air layering were tried but are not commercially viable. Patch budding or bud-grafting is the working method.
  • Nursery: seed from ripe pods (extracted May to June) is treated with fungicide, soaked in water for 4 to 6 hours and sown in polybags of sand, clay and goat manure (3:1:1) around July. After a year, rootstocks 0.4 to 0.8 cm thick are cut back to 25 to 30 cm and budded in July to September (about 60% success). Budded plants are ready 40 to 50 days later; plant out in September to October.
  • In-situ budding on seedlings already in the field is the other CIAH route. Field planting of 9 to 10 month old seedlings at the onset of monsoon (July to September) is reported to give 80 to 90% establishment.
  • Top-working: wild khejri trees on a farm can be converted to improved ones by patch budding.

Spacing and care

  • The CIAH-based economics used 278 plants per hectare (about 112 per acre), roughly 6 x 6 m. Confirm spacing for your rainfall and dune conditions with CIAH or the KVK.
  • Manure at about 5 kg per plant is allowed in the CIAH-based table; the economic table allows ₹25 per plant per year for pruning, watching, fencing and plant protection.
  • Training and pruning shape the canopy. In western Rajasthan, lopping for fodder runs mid-November to January. Annual lopping is common but not advised for sangri production; lop after the pods are picked so shoots mature for next season's crop. Lopping every 3 years is reported to give 172 to 242% more leaf fodder than frequent lopping.

Harvest and yield

  • Flowering and pods: flowering in February to March, pod set in April to May. Fresh tender pods are available for only 10 to 15 days, mostly the second half of April.
  • Picking stage: for good dried sangri, pick Thar Shobha pods 10 to 16 days after setting, in 2 to 3 pickings by hand, deep green and thin. Pods picked at 10 to 16 days dry black and rehydrate best (rehydration 287 to 296%); pods picked at 19 days or later dry brown, which buyers dislike. Dry recovery is about 26 to 28% of fresh weight.
  • Processing: blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes, dip in cold water for 5 minutes, spread in a single layer. A CIAH solar tunnel dryer dries sangri in about 8 hours against about 24 hours in open sun, with cleaner colour.
  • Yield: ICAR sources give 7 to 8 kg tender pods per year for an average grown tree older than 12 years under field conditions, and 10 to 15 kg for a well-managed tree about 20 years old under improved production practice; a mature tree also gives 25 to 30 kg dry leaf (loong). Yield of young budded trees in years 3 to 5 is lower and was not found in published figures.
💡 Tip: Start by budding or top-working a few existing trees and picking at the right stage. Selling cleanly dried black sangri in 250 g packs directly to consumers is the CIAH-recommended way to cut out middlemen.

Cost and returns

  • Prices: ICAR-CIAH (2024) reports dried sangri retailing at ₹800 to ₹1,000 per kg while middlemen pay farmers ₹400 to ₹500 per kg. A 2025 CIAH paper quotes ₹100 to ₹150 per kg fresh and ₹500 to ₹800 per kg dried. An older ICAR magazine table used much lower rates (₹60 per kg dried, ₹20 per kg fresh), so published returns vary greatly by year.
  • Cost (CIAH table): ₹20,180 per hectare (about ₹8,170 per acre) including land preparation ₹3,500, 278 budded plants at ₹30 (₹8,340), manure ₹1,390 and ₹6,950 for care and fencing. Prices are of that article's date; current plant, fencing and labour cost will be higher.
  • Arithmetic (illustration): take 7.5 kg fresh pods per tree, 27% dry recovery = about 2 kg dried; x 278 trees = about 560 kg dried per hectare (about 225 kg per acre). At ₹400 per kg that is about ₹2.2 lakh per hectare (₹90,000 per acre); at ₹500 per kg about ₹2.8 lakh. At the 15 kg per tree figure and 27% recovery (about 4 kg dried) it would be about double. The published table adds tender-pod income and dehydrated-pod income together, which counts the same pods twice; use only one.
  • Loong is an extra: 25 kg dry leaf per plant at ₹5 per kg gave ₹34,750 per hectare in that table.

Market and rules

  • Buyers are local sangri traders and retailers, and consumers directly if you pack it yourself. Middlemen take a large share, so packing and labelling yourself helps.
  • Legal limit: khejri is Rajasthan's state tree. Felling is restricted under the Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1965 and the Rajasthan Forest Act, 1953, and in early 2026 the state ordered a ban on felling and approved the draft Rajasthan Trees (Protection) Bill, 2026 covering 29 species. Check the present rules with your tehsil, forest or revenue office before cutting any khejri or removing one for a plot.
  • Use FPO or women's group sales for value addition, and see subsidy finder for dryer and horticulture support. No verified khejri-specific subsidy rate was found.

Sources