Wheat
Sow in November, harvest around March
Sowing time is now.
Grown on 4.7 lakh acres here. Sold at 4 mandis in your district.
₹13,000–₹20,000
per acre a season, before costs
At typical costs, from a loss of ₹5,000 to a profit of ₹1,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 4 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Needs care: Soil 7/10
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 350 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 140 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 15–25 °C on average, and survives 5–27 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Nov 28 °C / 13 °C
- Dec 23 °C / 9 °C
- Jan 21 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 25 °C / 11 °C
- Mar 31 °C / 16 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Wheat: 7 out of 10 (okay).
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of organic carbon.
Likes pH 6.0–8.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 16 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).
On rain alone it gets about 43% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 43% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹2,401 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹2,600 a quintal, the middle of 106 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹464 a season at typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹2,610 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹1,840 2021
- ₹2,020 2022
- ₹2,340 2023
- ₹2,430 2024
- ₹2,540 2025
Prices are usually best in October.
Typical costs are about ₹19,000 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
The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 17 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.
-
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 92% of local fields of this crop get it.
-
Short of organic carbon Your soil is likely short of organic carbon.
Add 4 tonnes of compost or farmyard manure per acre before sowing, and plough crop leftovers back in instead of burning them.
Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 92%
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 60%
- Zinc Sulphate Heptahydrate / Monohydrate 11%
- Calcium Ammonium Nitrate 7%