Linseed
Sow in October, harvest around February
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 88 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹14,000–₹21,000
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹6,000–₹13,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 9/10
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 300 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 20 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 16–24 °C on average, and survives 5–30 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 32 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 30 °C / 16 °C
- Dec 25 °C / 11 °C
- Jan 23 °C / 10 °C
- Feb 27 °C / 13 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Linseed: 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 6.0–6.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 3.5 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 73% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 73% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹7,063 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹10,000 a quintal, the middle of 17 mandis across India (latest 12 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹17,000 a season after typical costs.
- ₹6,680 2021
- ₹6,150 2022
- ₹4,800 2023
- ₹5,490 2024
- ₹6,690 2025
Prices are usually best in November.
Typical costs are about ₹8,000 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.