3- ZAKAT ON CROPS
ZAKAT ON CROPS
The rulings of this section apply to the farmers who raise the crops. As for those who buy agricultural produce with the intention to sell it, their produce is no longer considered as crops are, but is rather a type of trade goods, and the zakat on it must be paid accordingly.
There is no zakat on grains or legumes except the staple types that people cultivate, dry, and store, such as wheat, barley, millet, rice, lentils, chickpeas, broad beans, grass peas, and Sana’i wheat.
There is no zakat on fruit except for raw dates and grapes (the zakat on grapes being taken in raisins, and on dates, in cured dates). There is no zakat on vegetables. Nor is there zakat on seasonings such as cumin or coriander (since the aim in using them is preparation of food, not nourishment).
One is obliged to pay zakat as soon as one possesses the zakat-payable amount (def: below) of grain, or when the ripeness and wholeness of a zakat-payable amount of dates or grapes is apparent. Otherwise, one is not obliged.
THE ZAKAT PAYABLE AMOUNT OF CROPS
The minimal quantity on which zakat is payable for crops is 609.84 kilograms of net dried weight, free of husks or chaff, though for rice and Sana’i wheat. which are stored in the kernel, the zakat minimum, including husks, is 1219.68 kilograms of dried weight.
Zakat is not taken from grain until it has been winnowed (0: made free of straw), nor from fruits until they are dried (made into raisins and dates).
The produce for the entire year (i.e. the agricultural year) is added together in calculating the zakat minimum (when, for example. the season’s first crop alone is less than the zakat minimum). When one crop is harvested after another due to varietal differences or the location of the two fields-in the same year, and of the same kind of crop (such as spring wheat and winter wheat), zakat is payed from them as if they were a single quantity. Different varieties of grain are also calculated additively when harvested at the same time, though the fruit or grain of one year is not added to the fruit or grain of a different year.
Grapes are not calculated cumulatively with dates, nor wheat with barley (as they are different from one another).
The zakat for crops that have been watered without effort, as by rain and the like, is 10 percent of the crop (i.e. of the net dried storage weight of the grain, raisins, or dates). The zakat for crops that have been watered with effort, such as on land irrigated by ditches (or a waterwheel) is 5 percent of the crop.
If a crop has been raised without irrigation for part of the year and irrigated for part of it, then the zakat is adjusted (according to the period, meaning how much of the time the fruit or crops were growing). (It is more reliable to consult agricultural experts as to how much of the crop’s water came from rain and how much came from irrigation. If 50 percent of the water came from each, for example, one would pay 7.5 percent of the crop as zakat, as this is the mean between the above two percentages.)
After one has paid zakat once on a crop (if one is the farmer), there is nothing further due on it (as there is no repetition of zakat on one’s crops when they are in storage, unlike the repetition of it on money), even if it remains in one’s possession for years
It is unlawful for the grower to consume dates or grapes or otherwise dispose of them or sell them before they have been assessed (i.e. estimated as to how much there is, and the owner made responsible for the portion to be paid as zakat), and if he does, he is responsible for the loss (since part of it belongs to the poor.
If an act of God destroys the fruit after assessment, there is no zakat on it.
(Source: The reliance of the traveller, revised edition, Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller)
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