Castor Seed

A monsoon crop. Sow in Jul–Aug, harvest in Dec–Jan.

Check it on your land
Season
Kharif
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

99% of its area.
Ready in
160 days
about 5½ months
Water
600–630 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
20–30 °C
0 °C survives 15–39 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Kharif 99% of its area
Today
J J A S O N D J F M A M
Sow Growing Harvest
The year starts in June, with the monsoon. Your district can shift a few weeks.

Sowing Growing Harvest

Will it grow on your land?

Kullu Himachal Pradesh
Water
Season

Won't work: too cold in November

Castor Seed

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in July, harvest around December

This season's sowing time (July–August) is over.

No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Priced from mandis across India.

Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on

  • Needs care: Risky: 3 irrigations short
  • Doesn't suit: Too cold in november
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 3 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 380 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 240 mm it can use in a normal year, and 190 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 20–30 °C on average, and survives 15–39 °C.

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

  • Jul 25 °C / 18 °C
  • Aug 24 °C / 17 °C
  • Sep 24 °C / 16 °C
  • Oct 22 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
  • Nov 18 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
  • Dec 14 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)

Nights in November can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.

Soil

Soil for Castor Seed: 9 out of 10 (good).

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 6.0–7.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 7.5 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

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 (December 2025–January 2026): about ₹6,218 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹7,560 a quintal, the middle of 9 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹4,670 2021
  2. ₹6,580 2022
  3. ₹5,720 2023
  4. ₹5,530 2024
  5. ₹6,000 2025

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹24,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.

How to make it work

  • Short of nitrogen Your soil is likely short of nitrogen.

    Add about a quarter more urea than the usual dose, in two or three splits. A pulse crop in rotation also adds nitrogen.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
21 kg
DAP
35 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Kullu

What it needs

Temperature

20–30 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 15–39 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

600–630 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Kachchh Patan Banas Kantha Mahesana Jalore

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 8.5.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Needs rich soil
  • S Needs plenty of sulphur and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); ICAR-IIOR; FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for one acre

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

With irrigation

Urea nitrogen
57 kg about 1¼ bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
35 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag
MOP potash
13 kg about ¼ of a 50 kg bag

Rain-fed: urea 21 kg, DAP 35 kg an acre

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. If your soil card says a nutrient is low, add about a quarter more of it.

Watch out for

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra
  • Semilooper
    Pest

    Look for

    Leaves eaten by green caterpillars that move in loops.

    What to do first

    Pick off caterpillars; spray when they are many. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Capsule borer
    Pest

    Look for

    Webbed spikes with caterpillars boring into the capsules.

    What to do first

    Remove webbed spikes; spray when damage spreads. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Wilt
    Disease

    Look for

    Plants wilt and dry; brown streaks inside the stem.

    What to do first

    Grow a resistant variety and rotate crops.

  • Grey mould
    Disease

    Look for

    Grey fungal growth on the spikes in rainy weather.

    What to do first

    Spray carbendazim when rain is forecast at flowering. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

What an acre earns

At India's average yield and a recent price, named below. Your land, water and mandi will differ.

Left an acre, a season

₹23,000

Yield India's average
7.6 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Dec 2025–Jan 2026)
₹6,218 a quintal
= Income
₹47,100
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys
−₹24,100
= Left
₹23,000

This week castor seed sells at about ₹7,560 a quintal: India's middle price at 9 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹33,200 a season.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹37,700 to ₹56,500 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹7,536 a quintal
Lowest
May, ₹5,849 a quintal
₹5,849
₹7,536
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–May 2026, Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Kullu Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
23.6 lakh acres
2024-25
Average yield
7.6 quintals an acre (1.9 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Kachchh
Gujarat
Best yield
Jamnagar
13 quintals an acre

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

76% of India's castor seed area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Kachchh Gujarat 17% 4.0 lakh acres
  2. 2 Patan Gujarat 9.6% 2.3 lakh acres
  3. 3 Banas Kantha Gujarat 9.4% 2.3 lakh acres
  4. 4 Mahesana Gujarat 8.9% 2.1 lakh acres
  5. 5 Jalore Rajasthan 7.5% 1.8 lakh acres
  6. 6 Surendranagar Gujarat 6.6% 1.6 lakh acres
  7. 7 Barmer Rajasthan 5.0% 1.2 lakh acres
  8. 8 Ahmedabad Gujarat 4.5% 1.1 lakh acres
  9. 9 Sirohi Rajasthan 4.4% 1.1 lakh acres
  10. 10 Vadodara Gujarat 3.9% 93,592 acres

Castor Seed yield, quintals an acre (average of 2020-21 to 2024-25 in most districts)

  1. 0.7–1.2
  2. 1.3–1.9
  3. 2.0–3.1
  4. 3.2–7.8
  5. 8.0–20
No data

1 Numbers match the list: the districts with the most area.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Where yields are highest

Districts growing it on at least 100 ha, against the average across India. The line runs from India's average to each district.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Across India over the years

Yield across India, quintals an acre

0 2.5 q 5 q 7.5 q 10 q
1999-00 2024-25
Latest 7.5 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

0 10 lakh 20 lakh 30 lakh 40 lakh
1999-00 2024-25
Latest 23.6 lakh acres in 2024-25

Years run July to June. Only years in which most of the usual districts reported are shown.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 1999-00 to 2024-25.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Castor Seed yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil high in phosphorus moderate 123 districts

Castor Seed yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic weak 127 districts
  • More soil low in phosphorus weak 123 districts

A pattern is not proof that soil causes the difference.

Source: Soil Health Card – soil nutrient analysis (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).