Sweet Orange (Mosambi)
Holds the land all year
No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Sold at 4 mandis in your district.
₹1.4 lakh–₹2.0 lakh
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 4
After typical costs: ₹9,000–₹77,000 an acre a year
- Needs care: Risky: 6 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Needs care: Soil 7/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 6 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 1,100 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 800 mm it can use in a normal year, and 660 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 20–30 °C on average, and survives 13–38 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jun 38 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Jul 34 °C / 26 °C
- Aug 33 °C / 25 °C
- Sep 33 °C / 24 °C
- Oct 32 °C / 18 °C
- Nov 27 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 22 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 20 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 24 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 30 °C / 15 °C
- Apr 37 °C / 20 °C
- May 39 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 38 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Sweet Orange (Mosambi): 7 out of 10 (okay).
- Soil here is often too alkaline for it.
- Many fields here are short of boron, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 5.0–6.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 67 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).
A new planting gives its first real harvest after about 4 years. The money here is for plants already bearing.
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 through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹3,425 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹3,000 a quintal, the middle of 2 mandis in your district (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹22,000 a year after typical costs.
- ₹2,700 2022
- ₹2,500 2023
- ₹2,800 2024
- ₹3,050 2025
Prices are usually best in July.
Typical costs are about ₹1.3 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
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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.