Barley

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 630 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 240 mm it can use in a normal year (130 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 0 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 15–20 °C on average, and survives 2–40 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

• Nov 11 °C / 1 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 6 °C / -4 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 3 °C / -6 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 5 °C / -4 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 9 °C / -1 °C (outside its best range)
• Apr 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
• May 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
• Jun 23 °C / 12 °C
• Jul 22 °C / 13 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Barley: 9 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: sulphur and boron.

• The pH here suits it.
• Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.

Likes pH 6.5–8.5.

Money

Yield: about 6.1 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).

Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (August–September 2026): about ₹2,493 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹2,776 a quintal, the middle of 25 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Minimum support price: ₹2,286 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹18,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). They are spent whatever the harvest.