Ushr on Crops: How Much on Wheat, Rice, Cotton and Sugarcane?

Ushr is the zakat of the land. A farmer who brings in 100 maund of wheat does not wait a year or compare it with the gold or silver nisab: a share of the crop is owed as soon as it is harvested. It is one of the oldest forms of zakat, and in a farming country like Pakistan it is the one many families actually pay most. You can work out your own figure in the ushr calculator, which takes your harvest in maunds or kilograms, your watering method and your madhab. This guide explains the rules behind it: the rate, the minimum, which crops count, costs, tenants, orchards, and several worked examples.

Where ushr comes from

The Quran speaks of crops directly. After mentioning gardens, date palms, grain, olives and pomegranates, it says:

“Eat of their fruit when they bear fruit, and give its due on the day of its harvest.” (Surah al-An’am 6:141)

It also says, “O you who believe, spend from the good things you have earned and from what We have brought out of the earth for you” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:267). The Prophet ﷺ then set the rate:

“On what is watered by rain or springs, or is naturally irrigated, a tenth; and on what is watered by irrigation, half a tenth.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 1483, narrated by Ibn ‘Umar)

The word ushr means “a tenth”, and the 5% rate is called nisf-ushr, “half a tenth”. The difference is about effort: land that drinks from the sky costs the farmer nothing to water, while land that needs a pump, a bullock-drawn well or paid water costs real money and labour, so the share owed is halved.

The rate: 10%, 5%, or in between

How the land is watered	Rate	On 100 maund
Rain (barani), river flooding (sailaba), springs, a free natural stream	10% (ushr)	10 maund
Tube well, pump, bought water, canal water you pay a charge for	5% (nisf-ushr)	5 maund
Both, roughly equally through the season	7.5% (three quarters of ushr)	7.5 maund

Canal water in Pakistan

Most irrigated land in Punjab and Sindh takes canal water and pays a water rate (abiana) to the government. Many Pakistani scholars treat this as paid irrigation and apply 5%, especially where tube well water is added as well. Others point out that the farmer does not lift the water himself, and lean towards 10% where the canal charge is small. This is a genuine difference among contemporary muftis, so if all your water comes from a canal, ask your scholar which rate they hold.

Mixed watering: two honest answers

Many fields get some rain and some tube well water. The classical rule, found in Hanafi books and in Ibn Qudamah’s al-Mughni for the Hanbali school, is:

• Go by the majority. If most of the season’s watering came from rain, pay 10%; if most came from the tube well, pay 5%. In the Hanafi school this is the main rule.
• If the two are about equal, the Shafi’i and Hanbali schools give three quarters of a tenth, which is 7.5%.

In the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali modes our ushr calculator offers a “mixed” option at 7.5% (it is not shown in Hanafi mode, where the source used for most of the season decides). That is the right answer when the watering was roughly half and half. If one source clearly dominated, choose “rain” or “irrigated” instead, following the majority rule. Some scholars prefer to split the rate in exact proportion (for example, two thirds rain and one third tube well), which gives a figure between 5% and 10%; that is also a recognised view.

Is there a minimum (nisab) for ushr?

This is the biggest difference between the schools, and it matters for small farmers.

• Imam Abu Hanifa: no nisab. Ushr is due on any harvest, small or large, because the verse and the hadith of “a tenth” are general. This is the main Hanafi position, and our calculator uses it when you choose Hanafi.
• Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad (his two students), and the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools: no ushr below 5 wasq, based on the hadith “There is no sadaqah in less than five awsuq” (Sahih Muslim 979). Our Ahl-e-Hadith option uses this view too, since it follows the hadith directly.

One wasq is 60 sa’, so 5 wasq is 300 sa’. Measured in wheat this comes to roughly 653 kg, which is about 16.3 maund (1 maund = 40 kg). Different scholars give slightly different modern weights because the sa’ was a measure of volume, not weight, but about 653 kg is the commonly used figure and the one our calculator applies.

In practice: a family with a small plot that produces 10 maund of wheat owes ushr in the Hanafi school (1 maund on rain-fed land) but nothing in the Shafi’i, Maliki or Hanbali view. Above about 16 maund, every Sunni school agrees ushr is due.

Shia Ja’fari fiqh is narrower again: zakat on crops applies only to wheat, barley, dates and raisins, with its own minimum. Ayatollah Sistani’s rulings state that minimum in an older unit that works out somewhat higher than 653 kg, and they treat costs differently from the classical Sunni view, so Shia readers should check his Islamic Laws on sistani.org.

Which crops does ushr apply to?

Hanafi: almost everything the land produces

Imam Abu Hanifa held that ushr is due on whatever is grown on the land with the aim of benefiting from it: wheat, rice, maize, millet, pulses, cotton, sugarcane, oilseeds, vegetables, melons and fruit. Things that grow on their own and are not normally cultivated for income, such as firewood, wild grass and reeds, are excluded. So in Hanafi fiqh a cotton grower, a sugarcane grower and a vegetable farmer all pay ushr.

Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali: storable staples

The other schools limit ushr to crops that are staple foods and can be dried and stored: wheat, rice, barley, maize, dates and raisins, with some differences in detail between them (the Hanbali school, for example, uses “measured and stored” as its test, which brings in some pulses and seeds). Cotton, sugarcane, fresh vegetables and most fruit are not subject to ushr in these schools. Their sale proceeds become cash, which is counted in your yearly zakat if you are above the nisab.

Crop	Hanafi	Shafi’i / Maliki / Hanbali
Wheat, rice, maize	Yes	Yes (from 5 wasq)
Cotton	Yes	No
Sugarcane	Yes	No
Vegetables, fresh fruit (mangoes, citrus)	Yes	No
Dates, raisins	Yes	Yes (from 5 wasq)
Fodder grown to feed your own animals	Disputed; many say yes if grown as a crop	No

Are costs deducted before ushr?

The classical view of all four Sunni schools is no. Ushr is taken from the whole harvest. The cost of watering is already accounted for by the lower 5% rate, and seed, fertiliser, ploughing and labour are not subtracted. This is why the rate is low compared with the size of the crop.

Some contemporary scholars allow deducting costs, arguing that modern farming spends far more on diesel, fertiliser, pesticide and hired machinery than farming did in the early centuries, and that ushr should fall on the real produce. Some of them allow deducting only debts taken for the crop. These views exist, but they are a minority against the classical position. If you want to deduct costs, ask your scholar first, and be consistent from year to year. Our calculator follows the classical view and works on the full harvest.

Who pays: owner, tenant, or both?

Batai (crop sharing)

The same applies when land is inherited and the heirs farm it together: each heir owes ushr on their share of the crop (the wirasat calculator gives each share of the land in kanal and marla).

When land is farmed on shares, for example half to the owner and half to the cultivator, each person pays ushr on their own share. If the harvest is 100 maund of wheat on tube well land and it is split 50-50, the owner pays 2.5 maund on his 50 and the tenant pays 2.5 maund on his 50.

Cash rent (theka or ijara of land)

If the land is leased for a fixed cash rent, the schools differ:

• Imam Abu Hanifa: the owner pays, because ushr is a duty attached to the land.
• Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad (the sahibain), along with the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools: the tenant pays, because ushr is a duty on the crop and the tenant owns the crop.

Many Pakistani muftis today follow the view of the sahibain on this point and say the tenant pays ushr on the harvest. The owner’s rent income is then ordinary money that joins his yearly zakat on cash. Whatever you do, agree it clearly in the lease so that ushr is not paid twice or not at all.

Orchards and fruit sold on contract

Ushr on orchards works like any other crop in the Hanafi school: mangoes, citrus, guavas and dates are all included, at 10% or 5% depending on watering. It is common in Pakistan to sell an orchard’s fruit on contract (theka) to a contractor who picks and markets it. A rule often given by Hanafi muftis is: if the fruit was sold after it had formed and become usable, the owner who sold it pays ushr, and he can pay on the sale price; if it was sold before that stage and the buyer lets it ripen on the trees, the buyer pays. Contracts vary a lot, so check your arrangement with a scholar.

Paying in grain or in money

You can give ushr from the crop itself, which is what the hadith describes: 10 maund of wheat from 100. In the Hanafi school you may also pay its market value in rupees, which is often more useful to a poor family that needs cash for rent or medicine. If you pay in money, use the market price at the time you pay. The other schools generally prefer the crop itself; some of their scholars allow the value when it clearly benefits the recipient.

Ushr is due once per harvest. If your land gives two crops a year, wheat in rabi and rice or cotton in kharif, ushr is due on each. Stored grain is not charged ushr again in later years, but if you sell it, the money becomes part of your ordinary zakatable cash.

Worked examples

1. Wheat on rain-fed land

Rashid farms barani land near Chakwal and harvests 100 maund of wheat. Rain was the only water. Ushr is 10%: 10 maund (400 kg). In every Sunni school this is above 5 wasq, so it is due regardless of madhab.

2. Wheat on tube well land

Same harvest, 100 maund, but on land in Sargodha watered by his own tube well. Ushr is 5%: 5 maund (200 kg). At an example price of Rs 3,500 per maund, that is Rs 17,500 if he pays in money.

3. Cotton in rupees

Nadia’s family grows cotton on 10 acres of tube well land and sells 250 maund of phutti at an example price of Rs 8,000 per maund, Rs 20,00,000 in total. In the Hanafi school ushr is 5% of the crop: 12.5 maund, or Rs 1,00,000 in value. In the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools cotton is not an ushr crop; the sale money instead joins their cash for the annual 2.5% zakat if it is still held when their zakat year completes.

4. Mixed watering

Imran’s rice field was flooded by monsoon rain for about half the season and pumped from a tube well for the other half. 200 maund harvested. With roughly equal watering, ushr in the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools is 7.5%: 15 maund. In Hanafi mode the calculator asks you to pick the source that did most of the work. If he estimates that the tube well did most of the work, say three quarters of the watering, the majority rule gives 5%: 10 maund.

5. A small plot

A widow’s small plot gives 8 maund of wheat (320 kg) on rain. In the Hanafi school, 10% is due: 0.8 maund, about 32 kg. In the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools nothing is due, because 320 kg is below 5 wasq (about 653 kg).

Converting maund and kilograms

• 1 maund = 40 kg, so kg = maund × 40, and maund = kg ÷ 40.
• 5 wasq ≈ 653 kg ≈ 16.3 maund.
• A 50 kg bag of wheat is 1.25 maund.

Ushr and the government in Pakistan

The Zakat and Ushr Ordinance 1980 set up a state system in which ushr was assessed on landholders and collected through local zakat and ushr committees, alongside the bank zakat deduction described in our guide to bank zakat deduction in Pakistan. Over the years government collection of ushr fell away in practice, and after the 18th Amendment in 2010 zakat and ushr administration was devolved to the provinces. Arrangements may differ from province to province and can change, but today many farmers pay ushr themselves, directly to deserving people. If a government body does collect ushr from you, ask your scholar whether you still owe the difference, for example where the official rate or assessment was lower than the actual crop.

Who receives ushr

Ushr goes to the same eight categories as all zakat, listed in Surah at-Tawbah 9:60: the poor, the needy, people in debt, stranded travellers and the rest. The same exclusions apply: not your own parents, children or wife, and not Sayyids in the Sunni schools. See who can receive zakat for the full list. Many farmers give part of their ushr to landless labourers who helped with the harvest, which is allowed as long as it is a separate gift and not their wages.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for Ramadan. Ushr is due at harvest, not at your yearly zakat date. Delaying it without reason is a fault.
• Paying 2.5% on crops. That is the rate for cash and gold. Crops are 10% or 5%.
• Subtracting all costs first without having checked that your scholar holds that view.
• Forgetting the second crop. Rabi and kharif harvests each carry ushr.
• Both owner and tenant assuming the other pays on cash-rented land.
• Counting harvest wages as ushr. Grain given to labourers as payment for their work is wages, not zakat.

What to do now

1. Weigh or estimate your harvest and convert it to maunds or kg.
2. Decide the watering: rain or river (10%), tube well or paid water (5%), or roughly half and half (7.5%).
3. Check your madhab’s rule on the minimum and on which crops count.
4. Enter the figures in the ushr calculator to get the amount in grain and rupees.
5. Give it soon after harvest to people who are eligible.

If you keep goats, cows or buffaloes as well, read our guide to zakat on livestock, and use the Pakistan zakat calculator for your cash, gold and savings.

Frequently asked questions