Rapeseed & Mustard

A winter crop. Sow in Oct, harvest in Feb.

Check it on your land
Season
Rabi
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

100% of its area.
Ready in
120 days
about 4 months
Water
290–310 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
15–28 °C
0 °C survives 7–40 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Rabi 100% of its area
Today
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?

Nalanda Bihar
Water
Season

Possible in Nalanda, with effort

Rapeseed & Mustard

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in October, harvest around February

This season's sowing time (October) is over.

Grown on 7,353 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.

Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on

  • Needs care: Risky: 3 irrigations short
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 3 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 10 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 140 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 15–28 °C on average, and survives 7–40 °C.

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

  • Oct 32 °C / 23 °C
  • Nov 29 °C / 15 °C
  • Dec 25 °C / 11 °C
  • Jan 23 °C / 9 °C
  • Feb 27 °C / 13 °C

Soil

Soil for Rapeseed & Mustard: 9 out of 10 (good).

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

Likes pH 6.0–8.0.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 4.7 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).

Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹5,975 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹8,226 a quintal, the middle of 176 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Minimum support price: ₹6,613 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹6,280 2021
  2. ₹6,220 2022
  3. ₹5,210 2023
  4. ₹5,400 2024
  5. ₹6,200 2025

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹20,000 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

The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 6.0 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.

  • Short of boron Your soil is likely short of boron.

    Mix 4 kg of borax per acre into the soil before sowing.

    Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.

What local farmers put on it (share of fields):

  • Urea 90%
  • Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 58%
  • Calcium Ammonium Nitrate 13%
  • Zinc Sulphate Heptahydrate / Monohydrate 1%

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 Nalanda

What it needs

Temperature

15–28 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 7–40 °C.

Water

290–310 mm over its season

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

Tonk Ganganagar Alwar Bikaner Bharatpur

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 5 to 8.8.

Soil

  • Takes a little salt
  • Needs rich soil
  • S Needs plenty of sulphur and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); ICAR-DRMR; 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
57 kg about 1¼ bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
35 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag
MOP potash
27 kg about half a 50 kg bag

Sulphur: 16 kg for one acre, from about 90 kg of gypsum or 135 kg of single super phosphate

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
  • Aphids
    Pest

    Look for

    Clusters of small grey-green insects on flower heads and pods; pods stay small.

    What to do first

    Sow early, by October. Spray when many plants carry clusters; ask your KVK.

  • White rust
    Disease

    Look for

    White blisters under the leaves; flower heads swell and twist.

    What to do first

    Use clean seed and a resistant variety; spray metalaxyl with mancozeb when it appears. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Alternaria blight
    Disease

    Look for

    Brown round spots with rings on leaves and pods.

    What to do first

    Sow on time; spray mancozeb when spots appear. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Stem rot
    Disease

    Look for

    Water-soaked patches on stems with white cottony mould; plants break.

    What to do first

    Rotate crops and don't over-irrigate; where it comes back every year, spray carbendazim at flowering. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

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

₹15,400

Yield India's average
6.0 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Feb 2026)
₹5,950 a quintal
= Income
₹35,600
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹20,200
= Left
₹15,400

This week rapeseed & mustard sells at about ₹8,226 a quintal: India's middle price at 176 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹29,100 a season.

Sold at the support price (MSP, ₹6,613 a quintal) to government procurement, an acre would leave about ₹19,400 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: ₹28,500 to ₹42,800 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹8,250 a quintal
Lowest
February, ₹5,950 a quintal
₹5,950
₹8,250
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): ₹6,613 a quintal for 2027-28. Every crop's MSP

Latest prices near Nalanda Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
1.8 crore acres
2024-25
Average yield
6.0 quintals an acre (1.5 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Tonk
Rajasthan
Best yield
Deeg
9.6 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.

25% of India's rapeseed & mustard area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Tonk Rajasthan 3.7% 8.0 lakh acres
  2. 2 Ganganagar Rajasthan 3.7% 7.8 lakh acres
  3. 3 Bikaner Rajasthan 3.0% 6.4 lakh acres
  4. 4 Bhind Madhya Pradesh 2.5% 5.3 lakh acres
  5. 5 Hanumangarh Rajasthan 2.5% 5.2 lakh acres
  6. 6 Sawai Madhopur Rajasthan 2.1% 4.4 lakh acres
  7. 7 Morena Madhya Pradesh 1.9% 4.1 lakh acres
  8. 8 Churu Rajasthan 1.9% 4.0 lakh acres
  9. 9 Bhiwani Haryana 1.9% 4.0 lakh acres
  10. 10 Banas Kantha Gujarat 1.9% 4.0 lakh acres

Rapeseed & Mustard yield, quintals an acre (average of 2020-21 to 2024-25 in most districts)

  1. 0.5–2.7
  2. 2.8–3.7
  3. 3.8–4.7
  4. 4.8–6.2
  5. 6.3–9.6
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 5.8 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

0 1 crore 2 crore 3 crore
1998-99 2024-25
Latest 1.8 crore 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.

Rapeseed & Mustard yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is alkaline weak 522 districts

Rapeseed & Mustard yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic moderate 522 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).