Orange (Mandarin, Kinnow)
Holds the land all year
No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Sold at 6 mandis in your district.
₹1.4 lakh–₹2.1 lakh
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 4
After typical costs: ₹39,000–₹1.1 lakh an acre a year
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Needs care: Frost risk in December
- Suits: Soil 8/10
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 810 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 720 mm it can use in a normal year, and 600 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 23–34 °C on average, and survives 12–38 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jun 30 °C / 20 °C
- Jul 27 °C / 20 °C
- Aug 26 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
- Sep 26 °C / 18 °C (outside its best range)
- Oct 24 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 20 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 16 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 13 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 16 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 21 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 26 °C / 15 °C (outside its best range)
- May 30 °C / 18 °C
- Jun 30 °C / 20 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Nights in December can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.
Soil
Soil for Orange (Mandarin, Kinnow): 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: sulphur and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 6.0–6.8.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 53 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).
A new planting gives its first real harvest after about 4 years. The money here is for plants already bearing.
On rain alone it gets about 89% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 89% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (December 2025–February 2026): about ₹3,641 a quintal at mandis in your district.
- ₹5,000 2023
- ₹3,980 2024
- ₹6,750 2025
Prices are usually best in September.
Typical costs are about ₹99,000 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.