Sweet Orange (Mosambi)

Check it on your land
Grows best at
20–30 °C
0 °C survives 13–38 °C 40 °C

Will it grow on your land?

Karaikal Puducherry
Water
Season

Possible in Karaikal, with effort

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. Priced from mandis across India.

₹1.6 lakh–₹2.4 lakh

per acre a year, before costs

once bearing, from about year 4

After typical costs: ₹31,000–₹1.1 lakh an acre a year

  • Needs care: Risky: 4 irrigations short
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Needs care: Soil 7/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 4 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 920 mm it can use in a normal year, and 640 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 37 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jul 36 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Aug 35 °C / 25 °C
  • Sep 34 °C / 25 °C
  • Oct 32 °C / 25 °C
  • Nov 30 °C / 24 °C
  • Dec 29 °C / 23 °C
  • Jan 29 °C / 22 °C
  • Feb 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Mar 32 °C / 24 °C
  • Apr 34 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • May 37 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jun 37 °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).

Not in the score: organic carbon, sulphur and boron.

  • Soil here is often too alkaline for it.
  • Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 5.0–6.0.

How the soil score works

Money

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 84% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 84% of this yield.

Mandi price through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹3,500 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹3,580 a quintal, the middle of 123 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹75,000 a year after typical costs.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹3,040 2021
  2. ₹3,230 2022
  3. ₹3,500 2023
  4. ₹3,410 2024
  5. ₹3,330 2025

Prices are usually best in June.

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

  • 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.

See every crop that suits Karaikal

What it needs

Temperature

20–30 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 13–38 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

The check above works out its water need on your land.

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes slightly acidic soil. Grows from pH 4 to 8.3.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • K Needs plenty of potassium, zinc, iron and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); 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

Not covered yet. Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra for the dose.

Watch out for

Not covered yet. Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to watch for.

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 year, once it bears

₹1,09,600

Yield India's average
67.5 quintals an acre
× Price mandi price through the year (Dec 2025–Nov 2026)
₹3,500 a quintal
= Income
₹2,36,200
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys
−₹1,26,600
= Left
₹1,09,600

This week sweet orange (mosambi) sells at about ₹3,580 a quintal: India's middle price at 123 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹1,15,000 a year.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹1,88,900 to ₹2,83,400 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

It bears from about year 4: nothing to sell before.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
June, ₹5,500 a quintal
Lowest
January, ₹3,200 a quintal
₹3,200
₹5,500
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).

Latest prices near Karaikal Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
6.1 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
67.5 quintals an acre (16.7 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
Andhra Pradesh
46% of India's

States that grow it

Each state's share of India's production, in its latest year with figures (2025-26). Tap a state to open it.

Source: Horticulture area & production statistics (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).

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.

No recent district figures for this crop.