Last updated: 15 September 2026
> Quick Answer: Mustard cake fertiliser costs roughly ₹20 to ₹260 per kg in India in 2026. Loose 50 kg agricultural sacks sit at the bottom of that range and small milled garden packs at the top. Pack size, particle size and the extraction method explain almost all of the gap.
On 8 September 2026, loose sarso khali in 50 kg sacks was quoted between ₹15.50 and ₹36 per kg on Indian trade directories. Garden packs of one to ten kilograms ran ₹96 to ₹199 that day, and milled powders reached ₹254. Thirteen times the price, one by-product.
Nonetheless, hardly anyone cites it per kilogram. The products are quoted per package, and the Indian packaging sizes have become rather strange: 750 g, 900 g, 1.8 kg. Divide when comparing or the cheapest price will give you the biggest price per kilogram.
Why does one product sell at ₹20 and at ₹260 a kilogram?
Because three separate supply chains sell it. Loose agricultural supply moves cake by the sack into cattle feed and field manure. Garden e-commerce sells much the same cake in one to ten kilogram bags. A third tier mills it fine for containers.
| Tier | Usual pack | Price per kg, 8 Sep 2026 | Usually |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loose agricultural | 50 kg sack | ₹15 to ₹36 | Pressed or de-oiled, slabs or pellets |
| Garden e-commerce | 1 kg to 10 kg | ₹96 to ₹199 | Pressed, coarse to medium grind |
| Milled garden powder | 750 g to 2 kg | ₹150 to ₹260 | Fine milled pressed cake |
Read from Indian trade directories and garden e-commerce listings on 8 September 2026. Sellers are unnamed because listings reprice weekly.
The last row is not a variant of the first but rather an alternative product meant for those having a tractor.
How do you turn a pack price into a price per kg?
Divide the pack price by the pack weight in kilograms, for every size on the page, before comparing anything. Indian sellers list 750 g, 900 g, 1 kg, 1.8 kg, 2 kg, 5 kg, 10 kg side by side, and the rate moves further than the stickers do.
One garden seller's ladder, 8 September 2026:
| Pack | Pack price | Price per kg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 kg | ₹189 | ₹189.00 |
| 2 kg | ₹299 | ₹149.50 |
| 5 kg | ₹499 | ₹99.80 |
| 10 kg | ₹959 | ₹95.90 |
The 10 kg bag is 49% cheaper per kilogram than the 1 kg bag, same seller, same day.
The label will not do the division for you. Rule 6(11) of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules requires a unit sale price per gram below one kilogram and per kilogram above it, so a 900 g pack declares rupees per gram and a 1.8 kg pack rupees per kilogram. Odd sizes are legal because the 2022 amendment omitted the Second Schedule of standard quantities.
What does the extra money actually buy?
Four things, roughly in this order, and only the first two change what is in the cake. The rest change what it costs to handle.
- Extraction. How the oil was taken out.
- A second pass. Whether it was taken out twice.
- Particle size. How finely the residue was milled.
- Packaging. The bag and pack size.
Extraction sets the residual oil. Ghani processing leaves oilcake carrying about 15% residual fat, roughly twice that of screw-press cake. Feedipedia puts mechanically pressed mustard meal at 9.4% ether extract and 34.9% crude protein, against 2.3% and 26.0% when solvent extracted.
Protein is where the nitrogen sits, so the solvent route removes a quarter of it. That is the whole de-oiled question, covered in is your neem khali real, seed powder or de-oiled cake.
The raw material explains the floor. The 2026-27 rabi MSP for rapeseed and mustard is ₹6,200 per quintal, ₹62 per kg of seed, and cake is about 60% of the seed by weight. Cake could not sell at ₹25 if it carried a share of that. The oil carries the seed cost; the cake is priced by what the feed market pays for a residue.
Do pellets work out cheaper than powder?
Per kilogram of nutrient, no. They are the same material. Pellets and slabs are cheaper because a milling step was skipped, so whether that is a real saving depends on whether you will break hard cake down yourself, and how much you waste doing it.
Cake leaves a press hard. The FAO notes it is too hard for the trade to take for solvent extraction. Particle size then decides speed, because oil cakes mineralise slowly and microbes work on surfaces.
So the real comparison is not ₹30 against ₹250. It is ₹30 plus your milling and the fraction that never breaks down in a season. Across a field that favours the slab. Across eight pots it usually does not.
What is a very cheap mustard cake usually?
De-oiled meal, feed-grade material, or freight you have not counted. Below roughly ₹20 per kg the listing is almost always solvent extracted meal in 50 kg sacks. That is a real product with real agricultural uses, but a different one from pressed cake.
Composition gives it away, not the label. Solvent extracted mustard meal runs 2.3% residual fat and 26.0% crude protein, where mechanically pressed runs 9.4% and 34.9%. A plain woven sack tells you neither.
Freight is the second trap. Cake is bulky and cheap, so ₹20 per kg plus ₹250 of delivery on a 50 kg sack is really ₹25, and ₹70 on a 5 kg order. Moisture is the third, since cake sells by weight.
Which price tier makes sense for a terrace garden?
The tier that matches how many kilograms you will genuinely buy at once. A 50 kg sack at ₹25 per kg is the cheapest rate going and the wrong purchase for a balcony, because cake does not improve in storage. Most container gardeners want one to five kilograms.
SatRas is the peak of the range of the package range, and that is worth stating simply. SatRas mustard oil cake powder is ₹229 when it comes to 900 g and also for ₹399 when it comes to 1.8 kg, which is around ₹254 and ₹222 per kg. This places it above the garden band and approximately ten times the rate of the loose sack rate.
What the price buys is narrow and checkable: cake left after SatRas presses its own mustard oil in a wooden kolhu, so pressed rather than solvent extracted, milled to powder rather than pellets, and a single ingredient. Whether that is worth ₹254 against ₹96 is a judgement about form, not nitrogen.
The price of neem seed powder equals that of wood ash. Hence, the price for the four-input plant care combination is ₹859 for 3.6 kg, which corresponds to ₹239 per kilogram, against ₹946 bought separately. For the details on grams used per pot and the timing of repetition, see how much neem khali and sarso khali a pot needs; for the input choice, see wood ash or plant growth promoter.
What a price per kg does not tell you
Four things, and they matter more than the rate does.
- A single day. Every price here was read on one day from public listings. None is a quotation, none includes delivery, and none was checked against the bag that would actually turn up.
- No assay on the bag. No retail bag of mustard cake in India carries a nutrient assay. The nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium figures reported for it, around 4.8%, 2% and 1.3%, are literature averages across varieties and processing routes, not a guarantee about your sack.
- Bulk rates move. Rapeseed and mustard is a rabi crop, so supply follows the crush through the year.
- Price rules out, not in. A cheap bag is unlikely to be pressed cake, but a dear one is not proven so.
This article is educational and is not medical advice. Speak to a qualified healthcare professional before making dietary changes, particularly if you have an existing health condition.
Frequently asked questions
Is sarso khali the same thing as mustard oil cake?
Yes. Sarso khali is the Hindi name for the residue left after mustard seed is pressed for oil, and mustard oil cake, mustard cake and mustard seed cake all describe the same by-product in English. Sellers use the terms interchangeably in listings.
Why is cattle-feed mustard cake so much cheaper than garden packs?
It moves in 50 kg sacks into a bulk market that buys on protein for animals, with no milling, no small packaging and no retail margin. Garden packs carry grinding, small bags, e-commerce fees and delivery, all recovered over a fraction of the weight.
How much oil cake does one quintal of mustard seed leave behind?
Roughly 60 kg. Mustard cake is reported to be about 60% of the seed by weight, with oil and processing losses accounting for the rest. That ratio is why India generates several million tonnes of it every year as a by-product of edible oil.
Does the price of mustard oil cake change through the year?
Yes, in bulk. Rapeseed and mustard is a rabi crop sown around October and harvested in February and March, so crushing and cake supply peak after harvest and thin later in the year. Small packaged retail prices are far stickier and reprice much less often.
Can you buy mustard oil cake directly from a local oil mill?
Often, yes, and after a bulk sack it is usually the cheapest route. A kolhu or expeller unit will sell cake as it comes off the press, in slabs rather than powder, by weight and without packaging. You take on the milling yourself.
Is mustard oil cake cheaper than neem khali in India?
In bulk, usually yes, because mustard cake is produced in far larger volumes as an edible-oil by-product. In small garden packs the two frequently carry identical prices, since milling, packaging and delivery dominate the cost at that scale and swamp the raw material difference.
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