Radish (Mooli) Farming in India: Cost per Acre, Varieties, Diseases and Pests, Process and Profit

Radish (mooli) is a 25 to 60 day root crop. In India, grow the tropical (Asiatic) types such as Pusa Chetki, Pusa Desi, Pusa Reshmi and Japanese White in most places, and the temperate type Pusa Himani or White Icicle in cool months and hills. Use light sandy-loam soil with pH 6 to 7, 15 to 20 tonnes of well-rotted FYM per hectare (about 6 to 8 tonnes per acre), and 4 to 5 kg seed per acre. NHB puts yield at 25 to 35 tonnes per hectare for tropical types (about 10 to 14 tonnes per acre). One Kangra cost survey gives about Rs 40,550 per acre in total cost, and the break-even price at 10 tonnes per acre works out to about Rs 4 per kg. Profit is price-driven, so check your live mandi rate before you sow.

Match the type to the month you sow. Tropical (Asiatic) radish is the long white mooli you see in the mandi, and it suits most of the plains. Temperate (European) radish is the small, quick type that likes cool weather and the hills. NHB sorts Indian radish into these two groups, and almost every decision after this, from spacing to yield, follows from the group.

In plain words: if you sow in the plains in September to November, you want a tropical type. If you sow a small salad radish in a cool December in the plains, a temperate type is fine and will be ready in about a month. The best taste, texture and size come at 10 to 15 degrees Celsius according to the NHB soil and climate page, and TNAU says about 15 degrees. Once days get long and hot, the plant tries to flower before the root fills. That is bolting, and the root left behind is hard, pithy and sharp.

There is no single best variety, only the right one for your sowing month. For the northern plains, the NHB varieties page gives Pusa Desi, Pusa Reshmi and Japanese White for the main season, Pusa Chetki for summer and the monsoon, and Pusa Himani for December to February. Read the sowing window on the packet before you pay for seed.

Look at the days column and the window column together. A farmer who wants a quick summer crop looks at Pusa Chetki (40 to 45 days, heat tolerant). A farmer who wants a big, solid winter root for the mandi looks at Japanese White or Pusa Reshmi and waits 55 to 65 days. Punjab Safed has one more advantage: NHB says the roots stay edible for about 10 days after reaching full size, which gives you room if the truck is late.

TNAU lists Co 1, Pusa Reshmi, Pusa Chetki, Pusa Desi, Japanese White and Arka Nishant as popular plains varieties in Tamil Nadu, and White Icicle, Scarlet Globe and Rapid Red White Tipped for the hills. In the Kangra summer trials, farmers moved from local seed to "improved hybrids" with line sowing, and the roots stopped bolting in April-May sowing (Indian Farming, October 2025). The article does not name those hybrids. Ask your KVK or a licensed seed dealer which hybrid is tested for your district and month.

The Common Seed Mistake: Sowing a winter variety in summer is the usual cause of a crop that bolts. The Kangra farmers had broadcast varieties that "bolt early without forming appropriate marketable sized roots" in April-May (Indian Farming 2025). If you see tall flower stalks and thin roots at 30 days, the variety did not suit the month. Next time, check the sowing window first.

In the north Indian plains, sow from 1 September to 1 December. In the hills, sow from June to September. In peninsular India radish grows almost all year round except a few summer months, and NHB gives April to June as the best sowing time in the south. If you want steady income instead of one big harvest, sow in small batches every 15 to 20 days.

Think of it as a rolling plan. Say you grow one acre. Instead of sowing the whole acre on one day, sow a fraction of it today and the next fraction 15 to 20 days later, as NHB advises. Radish holds its best size for only a few days, so one big sowing means one big harvest week and a crowded mandi. Staggered sowing spreads the harvest and the price risk.

Radish wants light, loose, sandy-loam soil rich in humus with pH 6.0 to 7.0 (NHB). Plough deep and fine so that clods do not block the root. Mix 15 to 20 tonnes of well-rotted FYM per hectare, about 6 to 8 tonnes per acre, into the soil at land preparation. Do not use fresh manure. NHB links fresh FYM to forked roots.

You have probably seen the result: a mooli that splits into two or three legs, or bends around a stone or a lump of half-rotted dung. The root grows straight only when it meets loose soil all the way down. Heavy soil does the same thing in another way. NHB says it gives "rough, malformed roots with number of small fibrous laterals". Such roots fetch a lower price even if the yield looks fine.

• Soil and pH. Sandy loam with plenty of humus. TNAU gives pH 5.5 to 6.8 for the highest yield, so aim for about 6 to 6.8 if you can.
• Tillage. Plough until the clods are gone, then form ridges. NHB says radish is usually grown on ridges so the root can go down easily.
• FYM. NHB says 15 to 20 tonnes per hectare of well-decomposed FYM. TNAU says 25 tonnes per hectare. That is about 6 to 8 tonnes and 10 tonnes per acre.
• Test the soil first. The Michigan State bulletin asks growers to fertilise from a soil test, and its general figures apply only when no test is available. A soil health card reading tells you your pH and what to look at next.
• Rotate. Radish is in the cabbage family. Do not grow it after cabbage, cauliflower or mustard on the same land. Soil-borne problems such as black root rot build up on the same field. Our crop rotation guide has plans, and the Connecticut handbook names rotation as the way to avoid black root rot.

NHB recommends 10 to 12 kg of seed per hectare, which is about 4 to 5 kg per acre. TNAU says about 10 kg per hectare. Sow in lines on ridges at 45 x 8 cm for tropical types and 20-30 x 8 cm for temperate types. Do not broadcast if you can avoid it.

NHB and TNAU give different spacing because they write for different regions. Follow the one closest to your climate, or ask your KVK. What matters more is line sowing. In the Kangra programme, moving from broadcast to line sowing with seed treatment lifted yield from 115.9 to 170.7 quintals per hectare in 2024-25 (about 47 to 69 quintals per acre), according to the Indian Farming article. When seedlings crowd each other, thin them at the second weeding, as TNAU advises. Crowded roots stay thin.

That article says seed treatment was part of the package but does not name the treatment. Do not treat radish seed with any chemical unless the label lists radish or vegetables. If damping off has hit your field before, a bio-agent in the soil is a gentler start, and the damping-off section below covers it.

NHB suggests 50 to 100 kg nitrogen, 100 kg phosphorus (P2O5) and 50 kg potash (K2O) per hectare. Per acre that is about 20 to 40 kg N, 40 kg P2O5 and 20 kg K2O. Give half the nitrogen and all the phosphorus and potash at sowing, and the rest of the nitrogen 30 days after sowing.

• Put fertiliser deep. NHB says the feeder roots spread through the top 25 cm, so plough fertiliser in to that depth, especially in dry weather, instead of leaving it on top.
• Turn nutrient kg into bags. Divide the nutrient kg by the nutrient share and multiply by 100. For 20 kg N from urea (46 percent N), that is 20 / 46 x 100, about 43.5 kg of urea. Ask your agriculture officer to do the same sum for P and K from your soil test.
• Do not push nitrogen. Michigan State says excess nitrogen and potash "appear to make radishes brittle and may cause cracking under some circumstances".
• Watch boron. Michigan State says radish needs boron, and that low boron causes cracking and poor root development. If your root vegetables crack and a soil test or your KVK points to low boron, a water-soluble boron fertiliser is one route. Katyayani Boron 20 lists cauliflower, a cabbage-family crop, among its crops and names flower drop, fruit cracking and hollow stems as deficiency signs. The page does not list radish and gives no dose, so get the rate from your KVK and do not guess. The US rates in the Michigan bulletin are not Indian doses and are not copied here.

Irrigate straight after sowing. Then water every 10 to 12 days in winter and every 5 to 6 days in summer (NHB). TNAU says once a week in the plains. The exact number of days matters less than keeping the soil evenly moist, because swings between dry and wet are what crack roots.

Picture a field that dries out for ten days and then gets a heavy flood irrigation. The roots take up water fast and swell fast, and the skin splits. Utah State University Extension names erratic irrigation as the main cause of cracking in radish. Michigan State adds that lack of moisture gives irregular maturity and poor roots. So set a rhythm and keep to it.

• Light watering before harvest. NHB suggests a light irrigation a day before harvest so the roots lift easily.
• Two weedings in the rains. NHB asks for two weedings in the rainy season. Growing roots tend to push out of the soil, so earth up and weed early.
• Thin at the second weeding. TNAU says to thin densely sown plants then. Leave the stronger plant at each gap.
• Hold the moisture. A mulching guide explains how mulch keeps soil moisture steady. I did not find an Indian radish trial on mulch, so treat this as general advice.

I found no herbicide for radish on an official Indian page, so weeding here means hoeing by hand or with a wheel hoe. If a dealer offers a weedkiller for radish, ask to see the label line that lists radish.

One survey of Kangra farmers puts the full cost of a rabi radish crop at about Rs 1,00,203 per hectare, or about Rs 40,550 per acre, counting family labour, land rent and interest. Labour was about two thirds of that. The paper does not print the survey year, so treat the rupee values as old and indicative.

Read the table from the bottom up. Labour is the big line at about Rs 26,700 an acre. Seed, FYM, fertiliser and plant protection together come to only about 11 percent. So the cheapest way to improve profit is not to skimp on seed or manure. It is to waste less labour, harvest on time and sell at a good price. The table is from the 2020 IJCMAS paper on 60 vegetable growers in Nagrota Bagwan block, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, and it reports radish under rabi vegetables. This is a hill district, so wages and prices differ from Bihar, Punjab or Karnataka. Use it as a template and replace each line with your own local rate.

If Your Family Does The Work: Your cash cost is much lower than Rs 40,550 per acre. The same paper gives a "Cost A1" of Rs 53,461 per hectare (about Rs 21,640 per acre), which leaves out family labour. A farmer who hires all the labour feels the higher number. A farmer who works his own field feels the lower one.

About "per bigha" costs. A bigha is not one fixed size. It changes from state to state and even between districts. Take the per-acre figure above and multiply by the size of your bigha in acres. If a bigha in your village is half an acre, halve every per-acre figure. I did not find a sourced per-bigha cost, so I have not made one up.

NHB gives 25 to 35 tonnes per hectare for tropical radish, which is about 10 to 14 tonnes per acre, and 15 to 20 tonnes per hectare for temperate types, about 6 to 8 tonnes per acre. Profit is yield in kilograms times the price you actually get, minus total cost. The price decides most of it, so check your live mandi rate on the day you plan to harvest.

The Kangra rows show something useful. The same farmers, on the same kind of land, harvested about 48 percent more with improved seed and line sowing than with broadcast sowing. That gain came from technique, not from extra land.

Break-even price: the number to know before you sow

Divide your total cost by the kilograms you expect to harvest. Using the Kangra cost of Rs 40,550 per acre as an example only, this is the price per kilogram you need just to cover cost at each yield level.

Each Rs 1 per kg you earn above break-even is about Rs 10,000 per acre at 10 tonnes. This is why a good market day can matter more than a good variety. Live mandi prices change daily and by city, so check Agmarknet or your local mandi before you sow and again before you harvest. I have not put a price in this article because I could not confirm a current one.

What real income figures exist?

• Kangra cost survey (rabi radish). Gross return Rs 1,31,250 per hectare (about Rs 53,120 per acre). Net return over the full cost including family labour (Cost C3 of Rs 1,10,223 per hectare) was Rs 21,027 per hectare (about Rs 8,510 per acre), a benefit-cost ratio of 1.19. Net over the cash-type Cost A1 was Rs 77,789 per hectare (about Rs 31,480 per acre).
• Kangra summer radish programme (Farmers FIRST). The benefit-cost ratio averaged 4.3 for the improved package against 2.6 for local practice over 2020-21 to 2024-25. The article does not say how it counted cost.
• Farm income. Total income of the participating farms rose by about 79 percent. That comes from many changes together, not from radish alone.

You may see claims of "lakhs per acre in 40 days". They do not match any figure above. They need an unusually high price and yield together, and I found no official source for them, so this article does not repeat them. A 40 to 60 day crop that fits between two other crops is a real benefit. The money per acre is modest unless the price is good.

The pests named by the NHB pests page and TNAU are aphids, mustard sawfly and flea beetles. The Connecticut handbook adds diamondback moth larvae and cabbage root maggot. Walk the field once a week and turn leaves over. Because radish is harvested in 25 to 60 days, avoid sprays close to harvest and read the waiting period on the label.

A word about shop products. Katyayani has collections for cabbage pests, and radish is in the same family, so many of the pests overlap. The collections for aphids on cabbage, diamondback moth on cabbage and cabbage sawfly are listed for cabbage, not radish. The pages carry no radish label and no dose text, and one product on the sawfly page names other crops. Use them to see what is on offer, then read the pack for radish or for "vegetables" before you spray. For a gentler, bio-agent route, the bio pesticides collection lists Bt, Beauveria, Metarhizium, Verticillium, spinosad and nematode-agent products; again, check the label for your crop.

Both NHB (a page dated 2001) and TNAU (January 2016) list sprays such as malathion, monocrotophos and phosphamidon. I am not repeating those doses. Several of those chemicals may no longer be allowed on vegetables (I could not check each one), and an acceptable one must carry a radish or vegetable line on its label. I searched the CIB&RC insecticide list up to 30 September 2025 and found no row with radish on it. That list is guidance, not law, so check the current registration for your crop group before any spray.

The NHB diseases page lists Alternaria blight, white rust, bacterial root rot, radish mosaic and phyllody. White rust shows as white powdery patches under the leaf. Mosaic shows as pale spots between veins and travels by aphids. Black root rot and damping off appear in wet soil. Clean seed, rotation and good drainage prevent most of them.

If you see white powder under the leaf, do not wait for it to spread to the flowering shoots. Remove the worst leaves, keep the field weed-free and check the label of any fungicide for radish or vegetables. For orientation, Katyayani lists fungicides in a collection for Alternaria leaf spot on cabbage. It is a cabbage collection, so the pages carry no radish label, but Alternaria also attacks radish and the collection shows the options. Always read the pack.

Damping off is the one you can mostly stop before it starts. Sow on raised ridges, do not let water stand around seedlings, and use healthy seed. Some growers also add a bio fungicide to the soil. Trichoderma viride bio fungicide lists damping off among the problems it targets in vegetables, but its page does not list radish or give a dose, so read the label first.

Old NHB and TNAU advice for white rust and blight names fungicides such as Difolatan, Dithane Z 78 and Ridomil. Some may no longer be sold in India, so treat the names as history. Use only a fungicide whose label lists radish or the vegetable group, follow the dose and observe the waiting period. For the right way to spray, see our guide to spraying and dusting.

Most root defects trace back to a field or water mistake. Forking comes from fresh FYM and heavy soil. Cracking comes from uneven watering and, at times, low boron or too much nitrogen and potash. Pithiness and a sharp taste come from heat, long days and late harvest. Prevention costs little, and each fix is a habit, not a product.

Here is how it looks in the field. A mooli that cuts open spongy and white inside was probably left in the ground a few days too long, or grew in a hot spell. A mooli with a deep crack along its length probably got a heavy irrigation after a dry week. A forked mooli grew in lumpy, heavy or freshly manured soil. Utah State also notes that very cold roots at harvest can split, and that older, large-rooted types split more than young ones. The rule that covers most cases: even water, rotted manure, the right variety, and harvest on time. The hollow-root source is weaker than the rest, so I have flagged it in the VERIFY table.

Radish is ready in 25 to 60 days depending on the variety. Temperate types are ready 25 to 30 days after sowing, and tropical types take longer. NHB says roots should not be pithy or solid when harvested. Give a light irrigation the day before, then pull the roots by hand. Fresh radish keeps only 2 to 3 days at room temperature, so plan the sale before you pull.

• Check size daily near maturity. Michigan State says radish stays at best size for about 3 days in summer and 5 to 7 days in cool weather before it turns oversize and pithy. That is a US figure, but the pattern holds in India. Punjab Safed is the exception NHB highlights, since its roots stay edible about 10 days after full size.
• Wash, grade and bunch. NHB says to wash the roots, grade them by size and tie them into bunches with the tops on. Good roots are uniform, smooth, firm and free of damage, decay and insects. Tops should look fresh.
• Pack. Most radish goes to market loose or in gunny bags (NHB).
• Cold storage. Topped radish in a perforated polybag keeps for about 2 months at 0 degrees Celsius and 90 to 95 percent humidity (NHB post-harvest page).
• Know your buyer. TNAU names Vellore, Dindigul, Thanjavur and the Nilgiris as growing districts, and Mettupalayam, Dindigul, Coimbatore and Chennai as major markets in Tamil Nadu. NHB lists West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Assam as the main growing states. In your own area, talk to the mandi commission agent before you sow and ask which size and colour of root sells best.

The table puts the NHB and TNAU steps in order for a plains crop of tropical types. Days count from sowing. Treat the timing as a guide, not a fixed rule.

Most losses in radish come from a handful of avoidable habits. If you recognise one of these from last season, that is where to start.

Conclusion

Radish pays when three things line up: the right type for your sowing month, a loose well-prepared field with even water, and a price above your break-even. On the Kangra cost survey that break-even is about Rs 4 per kg at 10 tonnes per acre. Check your live mandi rate, stagger your sowing, and confirm any spray against its label before you use it.