Sesame (Til)
Sow in October, harvest around January
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.
₹14,000–₹21,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹905 to a profit of ₹6,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 9/10
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 300 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 200 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 20–30 °C on average, and survives 10–40 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 34 °C / 23 °C
- Nov 33 °C / 19 °C
- Dec 32 °C / 16 °C
- Jan 31 °C / 14 °C
Soil
Soil for Sesame (Til): 9 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of boron, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 5.5–7.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 2.8 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 71% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 71% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹8,751 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹14,750 a quintal, the middle of 7 mandis in your state (latest 7 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹14,000 a season after typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹10,346 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹7,840 2021
- ₹10,500 2022
- ₹13,660 2023
- ₹11,880 2024
- ₹8,870 2025
Prices are usually best in November.
Typical costs are about ₹15,000 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.