Cotton

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

Check it on your land
Season
Kharif
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

99% of its area.
Ready in
170 days
about 5½ months
Water
650–700 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
22–36 °C
0 °C survives 15–42 °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?

Khandwa (East Nimar) Madhya Pradesh
Water
Season

Possible in Khandwa (East Nimar), with effort

Cotton

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in June, harvest around December

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

Grown on 1.2 lakh acres here. Sold at 6 mandis in your district.

₹30,000–₹45,000

per acre a season, before costs

After typical costs: ₹3,000–₹18,000 an acre a season

  • Needs care: Risky: 3 irrigations short
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • 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 680 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 550 mm it can use in a normal year, and 450 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 22–36 °C on average, and survives 15–42 °C.

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

  • Jun 38 °C / 27 °C
  • Jul 31 °C / 24 °C
  • Aug 30 °C / 24 °C
  • Sep 31 °C / 23 °C
  • Oct 34 °C / 20 °C
  • Nov 32 °C / 16 °C

Soil

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

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

Likes pH 6.0–7.5.

How the soil score works

Money

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

On rain alone it gets about 80% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 80% of this yield.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (December 2025–January 2026): about ₹7,730 a quintal at mandis in your district.

This week: about ₹8,900 a quintal, the middle of 3 mandis in your district (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹16,000 a season after typical costs.

Minimum support price: ₹8,267 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.

That is the price for medium staple kapas (raw cotton). Long staple kapas has ₹8,667 a quintal.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹5,900 2021
  2. ₹8,600 2022
  3. ₹7,200 2023
  4. ₹6,980 2025

Prices are usually best in October.

Typical costs are about ₹28,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). 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 90% of local fields of this crop get it.

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

  • Urea 90%
  • Single Super Phosphate (SSP) 57%
  • Muriate of Potash (MOP) 37%
  • Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 11%

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
42 kg
DAP
26 kg
MOP
20 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Khandwa (East Nimar)

What it needs

Temperature

22–36 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 15–42 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

650–700 mm over its season

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

Jalgaon Yavatmal Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Surendranagar Amreli

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 5 to 9.5.

Soil

  • Copes with salty soil
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • K Needs plenty of potassium and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29 and ICAR-CSSRI; 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
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

Bt and hybrid cotton under irrigation often get more; follow your state's guide

Rain-fed: urea 42 kg, DAP 26 kg, MOP 20 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
  • Pink bollworm
    Pest

    Look for

    Flowers stay closed like a rosette; small holes in bolls with pink caterpillars inside; stained lint.

    What to do first

    Finish the crop by December and don't keep stubble. Use pheromone traps and destroy hit bolls; spray only when trap catches are high. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Whitefly
    Pest

    Look for

    Leaves turn yellow and sticky with black mould; tiny white flies rise when the plant is shaken.

    What to do first

    Use yellow sticky traps and neem oil, and avoid strong sprays early in the season. Spray only on advice.

  • Jassids
    Pest

    Look for

    Leaf edges curl down and turn yellow, then red.

    What to do first

    Grow a hairy-leaved tolerant variety; spray when many plants are hit. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Leaf curl virus
    Disease

    Look for

    Leaves curl upward with thick veins and small cup-like growths underneath.

    What to do first

    Grow a resistant variety, pull out sick plants and weeds, and control whitefly.

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

₹9,100

Yield India's average
5.0 quintals of kapas (raw cotton) an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Dec 2025–Jan 2026)
₹7,350 a quintal
= Income
₹36,700
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹27,600
= Left
₹9,100

This week cotton sells at about ₹8,823 a quintal: India's middle price at 224 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹16,500 a season.

Sold at the support price (MSP, ₹8,267 a quintal) to government procurement, an acre would leave about ₹13,700 a season. Procurement isn't open everywhere: ask at your mandi or agriculture office.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹29,400 to ₹44,100 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
October, ₹8,900 a quintal
Lowest
December, ₹7,200 a quintal
₹8,900
₹7,200
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).

Government minimum support price (MSP): ₹8,267 a quintal for 2026-27. That is the price for medium staple kapas (raw cotton). Long staple kapas has ₹8,667 a quintal. Every crop's MSP

Latest prices near Khandwa (East Nimar) Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
2.8 crore acres
2024-25
Average yield
5.0 quintals of kapas (raw cotton) an acre (0.4 tonnes of lint a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Jalgaon
Maharashtra
Best yield
Chhindwara
9.6 quintals of kapas (raw cotton) 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.

28% of India's cotton area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Jalgaon Maharashtra 4.2% 13.0 lakh acres
  2. 2 Yavatmal Maharashtra 3.9% 11.8 lakh acres
  3. 3 Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Maharashtra 3.3% 10.2 lakh acres
  4. 4 Surendranagar Gujarat 3.0% 9.2 lakh acres
  5. 5 Amreli Gujarat 2.7% 8.1 lakh acres
  6. 6 Jalna Maharashtra 2.5% 7.8 lakh acres
  7. 7 Beed Maharashtra 2.4% 7.4 lakh acres
  8. 8 Amravati Maharashtra 2.2% 6.6 lakh acres
  9. 9 Nalgonda Telangana 2.1% 6.3 lakh acres
  10. 10 Wardha Maharashtra 2.0% 6.0 lakh acres

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

  1. 0.1–1.2
  2. 1.3–1.5
  3. 1.6–1.8
  4. 1.9–2.1
  5. 2.2–4.3
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 of kapas (raw cotton) an acre

0 2 q 4 q 6 q
1999-00 2024-25
Latest 5.2 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

0 1 crore 2 crore 3 crore 4 crore
1999-00 2024-25
Latest 2.8 crore 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.

Cotton yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil high in phosphorus weak 261 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).