Ragi (Finger Millet)
Sow in October, harvest around February
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹3,000–₹4,000
per acre a season, before costs
Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹17,000–₹18,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- 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 290 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 18–30 °C on average, and survives 8–35 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 32 °C / 22 °C
- Nov 30 °C / 16 °C
- Dec 28 °C / 14 °C
- Jan 28 °C / 13 °C
Soil
Soil for Ragi (Finger Millet): 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: sulphur.
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
- Many fields here are short of zinc, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 6.0–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 1.3 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 ₹3,972 a quintal across mandis in your state.
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 ₹18,000 a season at typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹5,205 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹2,500 2022
- ₹2,500 2023
- ₹3,040 2024
- ₹3,000 2025
Prices are usually best in April.
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.