Turmeric
Sow in June, harvest around February
This season's sowing time (May–June) is over.
Grown on 95 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹1.5 lakh–₹2.2 lakh
per acre a season, before costs
After typical costs: ₹8,000–₹83,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 4 irrigations short
- Needs care: Very hot in June
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 4 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 890 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 710 mm it can use in a normal year, and 630 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 20–28 °C on average, and survives 18–32 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jun 38 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
- Jul 31 °C / 24 °C
- Aug 30 °C / 23 °C
- Sep 31 °C / 23 °C
- Oct 33 °C / 20 °C
- Nov 30 °C / 15 °C
- Dec 27 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 26 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Days in June get hotter than it likes. Time sowing so it flowers before then.
Soil
Soil for Turmeric: 8 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of sulphur, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 6.0–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 15 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 80% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 80% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹15,610 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹20,950 a quintal, the middle of 22 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹1.1 lakh a season after typical costs.
- ₹16,070 2024
- ₹15,410 2025
Prices are usually best in November.
Typical costs are about ₹1.4 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), 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.
About 100% of local fields of this crop get it.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 100%
- Urea 100%