What is the minimum threshold for zakaah on agricultural produce? Is there a difference between crops that are irrigated by rainfall and crops that are irrigated by mechanical means? What is the rate that should be paid on dates and grains?.


Praise be to Allaah.

The Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
explained the nisaab for grains and crops, which is five wasqs, and a wasq
is sixty saa‘s. So the nisaab is three hundred saa‘s measured by the saa‘
of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), of dates,
grapes, and grains such as corn, barley, rice and so on. The saa‘ of the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) is equal to two
handfuls scooped up by someone with hands of average size, and each
handful is equivalent to a mudd. This is the amount of a saa‘. In terms of
weight it is four hundred and eight (480) mithqaal, and a mudd is one
hundred and twenty (120) mithqaal, of grains that are of an average size,
neither very heavy nor light. [So the nisaab is equal to approximately 612
kilograms] 

If the grains are irrigated by rainfall and rivers, then (the
rate of zakaah) is one tenth, or one hundred saa‘s from every thousand
saa‘s, and so on. If they are irrigated by mechanical means or using animals
(to bring water) such as camels and so on, then one-half of one-tenth is
due, i.e., fifty from every thousand. The same ruling also applies to dates.
End quote. 

Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him)