Wheat
Sow in November, harvest around March
Sowing time is now.
Grown on 15 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹11,000–₹17,000
per acre a season, before costs
Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹2,000–₹8,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 3 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 3 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 360 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 60 mm it can use in a normal year (40 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 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 / 18 °C
- Dec 25 °C / 14 °C
- Jan 24 °C / 12 °C
- Feb 27 °C / 14 °C
- Mar 31 °C / 18 °C
Soil
Soil for Wheat: 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: sulphur.
- Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
- Many fields here are short of zinc, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 6.0–8.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 8.0 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 72% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 72% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹2,377 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹2,724 a quintal, the middle of 497 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹3,000 a season at typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹2,610 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹1,820 2021
- ₹2,060 2022
- ₹2,330 2023
- ₹2,480 2024
- ₹2,530 2025
Prices are usually best in November.
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
-
Short of zinc Your soil is likely short of zinc.
Mix 10 kg of zinc sulphate per acre into the soil before sowing. One dose lasts two or three seasons.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.