Cauliflower

A winter crop. Sow in Sep–Nov, harvest in Dec–Feb.

Check it on your land
Season
Rabi
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

Also grown in kharif.
Ready in
100 days
about 3½ months
Grows best at
10–25 °C
0 °C survives 5–30 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Rabi
Kharif
Today: rabi sowing time
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?

Kishanganj Bihar
Water
Season

Won't work: too hot here in this season

Cauliflower

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in June, harvest around September

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

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

₹1.5 lakh–₹2.3 lakh

per acre a season, before costs

After typical costs: ₹40,000–₹1.1 lakh an acre a season

  • Suits: Rain is enough
  • Doesn't suit: Too hot here in this season
  • Needs care: Soil 7/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain is enough, even in a dry year.

Needs about 410 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 1,090 mm it can use in a normal year, and 980 mm in a dry year.

Heavy rain here can waterlog it. Grow it on raised beds or land that drains well.

Temperature

Grows best at 10–25 °C on average, and survives 5–30 °C.

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

  • Jun 33 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jul 33 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
  • Aug 33 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
  • Sep 33 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)

Soil

Soil for Cauliflower: 7 out of 10 (okay).

  • Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
  • Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
  • Many fields here are short of boron, which it needs a lot.

Likes pH 6.0–7.0.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 68 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (its government crop records list none for your district).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (September–October 2026): about ₹2,750 a quintal across India's mandis.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹1,650 2021
  2. ₹1,930 2022
  3. ₹1,510 2023
  4. ₹2,180 2024
  5. ₹2,030 2025

Prices are usually best in July.

Typical costs are about ₹1.1 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), 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.

    About 96% of local fields of this crop get it.

What local farmers put on it (share of fields):

  • Urea 96%
  • Calcium Ammonium Nitrate 40%

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
85 kg
DAP
53 kg
MOP
40 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Kishanganj

What it needs

Temperature

10–25 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 5–30 °C.

Water

The check above works out its water need on your land.

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 5.5 to 8.5.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Needs rich soil
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen, potassium and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); 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

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
85 kg about 2 bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
53 kg about 1 bag of 50 kg
MOP potash
40 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag

Borax: 4 kg for one 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
  • Diamondback moth
    Pest

    Look for

    Small holes in the leaves; tiny green caterpillars wriggle when touched.

    What to do first

    Grow mustard rows as a trap crop and use pheromone traps; spray Bt. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Black rot
    Disease

    Look for

    V-shaped yellow patches from the leaf edges with black veins.

    What to do first

    Treat seed in hot water and rotate crops.

  • Aphids
    Pest

    Look for

    Clusters of small grey insects on the leaves and curds.

    What to do first

    Spray only if clusters are thick; ask your KVK.

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

₹94,500

Yield India's average
83.9 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Sep–Oct 2026)
₹2,750 a quintal
= Income
₹2,30,600
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys
−₹1,36,100
= Left
₹94,500

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹1,84,500 to ₹2,76,700 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
July, ₹3,000 a quintal
Lowest
February, ₹1,400 a quintal
₹1,400
₹3,000
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–Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Kishanganj Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
12.5 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
83.9 quintals an acre (20.7 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
West Bengal
16% of India's

States that grow it

Each state's share of India's production, in its latest year with figures (2025-26). Tap a state to open it.

Source: Horticulture area & production statistics (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).

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.

No recent district figures for this crop.