Garlic
Sow in October, harvest around March
This season's sowing time (October) is over.
No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Priced from mandis across India.
₹1.3 lakh–₹2.0 lakh
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹45,000–₹1.1 lakh an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Needs care: Soil 6/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 390 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 100 mm it can use in a normal year (70 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 18–30 °C on average, and survives 7–35 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 30 °C / 23 °C
- Nov 27 °C / 19 °C
- Dec 25 °C / 15 °C
- Jan 24 °C / 13 °C
- Feb 27 °C / 15 °C
Soil
Soil for Garlic: 6 out of 10 (okay).
Not in the score: salt, sulphur, zinc and 4 more.
- Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
- Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 6.0–6.6.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 33 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).
On rain alone it gets about 78% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 78% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹6,473 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹12,000 a quintal, the middle of 196 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹2.2 lakh a season after typical costs.
- ₹5,820 2021
- ₹3,500 2022
- ₹6,320 2023
- ₹14,380 2024
- ₹6,280 2025
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 ₹88,000 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
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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.