Reading the Mandi: How to Time Your Sale for a Better Price

The difference between a good and a poor price is often a few days and one phone check. A practical guide to using live mandi data, arrivals and nearby markets to sell smarter.

Two farmers harvest the same onions in the same week. One sells the day everyone else does, into a glutted mandi, and takes whatever rate is offered. The other checks prices across three nearby markets, waits two days for arrivals to ease, and earns 15% more for the identical crop. The crop did not change. The information did. …