Ragi (Finger Millet)

A monsoon crop. Sow in Jun–Aug, harvest in Oct–Dec.

Check it on your land
Season
Kharif
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

88% of its area. Also grown in rabi.
Ready in
110 days
about 3½ months
Water
300–340 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
18–30 °C
0 °C survives 8–35 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Kharif 88% of its area
Rabi 12% of its area
Today: kharif harvest
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?

Shimla Himachal Pradesh
Water
Season

Won't work: too cold in January

Ragi (Finger Millet)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in November, harvest around March

Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.

No figures for this season in your district. Priced from mandis across India.

₹10,000–₹15,000

per acre a season, before costs

Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹6,000–₹11,000 an acre a season

  • Suits: Rain is enough
  • Doesn't suit: Too cold in january
  • Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain is enough in a normal year. Keep one irrigation ready for a dry year.

Needs about 130 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 50 mm it can use in a normal year (30 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 110 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 18–30 °C on average, and survives 8–35 °C.

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

  • Nov 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
  • Dec 14 °C / 3 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jan 11 °C / 2 °C (outside its best range)
  • Feb 13 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)

Nights in November can bring frost while the plants are young. Sow a little later, or cover the seedlings on cold nights.

Soil

Soil for Ragi (Finger Millet): 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: sulphur and boron.

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

Likes pH 6.0–7.0.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 3.5 quintals an acre here in its other seasons (district figures).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹3,550 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹3,500 a quintal, the middle of 42 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹9,000 a season at typical costs.

Minimum support price: ₹5,205 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹2,260 2021
  2. ₹2,280 2022
  3. ₹2,800 2023
  4. ₹3,300 2024
  5. ₹3,530 2025

Prices are usually best in January.

Typical costs are about ₹21,000 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.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
28 kg
DAP
18 kg
MOP
13 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Shimla

What it needs

Temperature

18–30 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 8–35 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

300–340 mm over its season

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

Tumakuru Hassan Mysuru Bengaluru South Mandya

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 5.5 to 8.2.

Soil

  • Takes a little salt
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen and zinc
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); 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
42 kg about 1 bag of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
26 kg about half a 50 kg bag
MOP potash
20 kg about half a 50 kg bag

Rain-fed: urea 28 kg, DAP 18 kg, MOP 13 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
  • Blast
    Disease

    Look for

    Eye-shaped spots on the leaves; the neck and fingers of the ear turn black.

    What to do first

    Grow a resistant variety; spray tricyclazole when spots spread. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Pink stem borer
    Pest

    Look for

    The central shoot dries in young plants.

    What to do first

    Destroy stubble after harvest; spray only when damage spreads. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Aphids
    Pest

    Look for

    Clusters of small insects on leaves and ears.

    What to do first

    Spray only if clusters are thick; ask your KVK.

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

₹700

Yield India's average
6.1 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Feb–Mar 2026)
₹3,592 a quintal
= Income
₹21,800
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹21,100
= Left
₹700

This week ragi (finger millet) sells at about ₹3,500 a quintal: India's middle price at 42 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹200 a season.

Sold at the support price (MSP, ₹5,205 a quintal) to government procurement, an acre would leave about ₹10,500 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: ₹17,400 to ₹26,200 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
January, ₹3,750 a quintal
Lowest
June, ₹3,291 a quintal
₹3,750
₹3,291
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): ₹5,205 a quintal for 2026-27. Every crop's MSP

Latest prices near Shimla Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
30.6 lakh acres
2024-25
Average yield
6.1 quintals an acre (1.5 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Tumakuru
Karnataka
Best yield
Erode
15 quintals 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.

62% of India's ragi (finger millet) area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Tumakuru Karnataka 13% 3.9 lakh acres
  2. 2 Hassan Karnataka 8.3% 2.5 lakh acres
  3. 3 Mysuru Karnataka 7.7% 2.3 lakh acres
  4. 4 Mandya Karnataka 5.8% 1.7 lakh acres
  5. 5 Bengaluru South Karnataka 5.6% 1.7 lakh acres
  6. 6 Bengaluru Rural Karnataka 5.2% 1.6 lakh acres
  7. 7 Chikkamagaluru Karnataka 4.5% 1.4 lakh acres
  8. 8 Kolar Karnataka 4.4% 1.3 lakh acres
  9. 9 Chitradurga Karnataka 3.7% 1.1 lakh acres
  10. 10 Chikkaballapura Karnataka 3.4% 1.0 lakh acres

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

  1. 0.9–3.1
  2. 3.2–3.9
  3. 4.0–4.8
  4. 4.9–6.4
  5. 6.6–18
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 an acre

0 2 q 4 q 6 q 8 q
1998-99 2024-25
Latest 6.4 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

0 20 lakh 40 lakh 60 lakh
1998-99 2024-25
Latest 30.6 lakh 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). 1998-99 to 2024-25.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Ragi (Finger Millet) yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is alkaline weak 170 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).