Fennel

Water

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

Needs about 600 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 30 mm it can use in a normal year (10 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 190 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 15–25 °C on average, and survives 6–32 °C.

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

• Oct 32 °C / 22 °C (outside its best range)
• Nov 31 °C / 17 °C
• Dec 30 °C / 14 °C
• Jan 30 °C / 14 °C
• Feb 34 °C / 17 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 37 °C / 21 °C (outside its best range)

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Days in March get hotter than it likes. Time sowing so it flowers before then.

Soil

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

Not in the score: zinc, iron, copper and manganese.

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

Likes pH 6.5–7.5.

Money

Yield: about 6.6 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 (March–April 2026): about ₹9,711 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹11,100 a quintal, the middle of 6 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Prices swing a lot from year to year, so income can be well above or below this range.

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹34,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.