Rapeseed & Mustard
Sow in October, harvest around August
This season's sowing time (October) is over.
Grown on 94 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹15,000–₹23,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹5,000 to a profit of ₹3,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 3 irrigations short
- Doesn't suit: Too cold in january
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 3 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 570 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 380 mm it can use in a normal year (250 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 60 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 16 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 9 °C / -1 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 3 °C / -7 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan -2 °C / -10 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 1 °C / -8 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 6 °C / -4 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 12 °C / 3 °C (outside its best range)
- May 18 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 22 °C / 10 °C
- Jul 22 °C / 12 °C
- Aug 21 °C / 11 °C
Soil
Soil for Rapeseed & Mustard: 9 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 6.0–8.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 3.3 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 77% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 77% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (August–September 2026): about ₹7,470 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹8,226 a quintal, the middle of 176 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹770 a season after typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹6,613 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹6,280 2021
- ₹6,220 2022
- ₹5,210 2023
- ₹5,400 2024
- ₹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
-
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.
About 100% of local fields of this crop get it.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 100%
- Nitro Phosphate Potash 43%