Page "Guar" Paragraph 1

Guar means " cow food " in Hindi and Urdu.

For best growth, the guar bean requires full sunshine, flashing rainfalls that are moderately frequent, and well-drained soil.

However, it is extremely drought-tolerant and thrives in semiarid regions.

Too much precipitation can cause the plant to become more leafy, thereby reducing the number of pods and / or seeds per pod and affecting the size and yield of seeds.

The crop is sown after the first rains in July and harvested in late October.

It is grown principally in north-western India and Pakistan with smaller crops grown in the semiarid areas of the high plains of Texas in the USA, Australia and Africa.

The most important growing area centres on Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India where demand for guar for fracking produced an agricultural boom as of 2012.