Banana

Planted once; the first bunches come about a year later, and the shoots that follow give more.

Check it on your land
Season
Whole year
100% of its area.
Water
1,460–1,740 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
23–33 °C
0 °C survives 12–42 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Planted once; the first bunches come about a year later, and the shoots that follow give more.

Will it grow on your land?

Ballari Karnataka
Water
Season

Won't work: too dry without irrigation

Banana

Holds the land all year

Grown on 3,723 acres here. Last recorded in 2011-12. Sold at 2 mandis in your district.

Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on

  • Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 1,600 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 310 mm it can use in a normal year, and 190 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 23–33 °C on average, and survives 12–42 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

  • Jun 33 °C / 24 °C
  • Jul 31 °C / 23 °C
  • Aug 31 °C / 23 °C
  • Sep 31 °C / 23 °C
  • Oct 30 °C / 22 °C
  • Nov 30 °C / 20 °C
  • Dec 30 °C / 18 °C
  • Jan 30 °C / 18 °C
  • Feb 33 °C / 19 °C
  • Mar 36 °C / 22 °C
  • Apr 37 °C / 24 °C
  • May 37 °C / 25 °C
  • Jun 33 °C / 24 °C

Soil

Soil for Banana: 8 out of 10 (good).

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
  • Many fields here are short of zinc, which it needs a lot.
  • Many fields here are short of boron, which it needs a lot.

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 109 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (no recent yield figures for your district).

Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.

Mandi price through the year (September–October 2025): about ₹2,100 a quintal at mandis in your district.

This week: about ₹2,775 a quintal, the middle of 4 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov).

Prices are usually best in October.

Typical costs are about ₹2.1 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.

How to make it work

  • Short of iron Your soil is likely short of iron.

    Spray ferrous sulphate, 5 g per litre of water, when young leaves turn yellow.

    Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.

  • Short of boron Your soil is likely short of boron.

    Mix 4 kg of borax per acre into the soil before sowing.

    Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.

What local farmers put on it (share of fields):

  • Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 100%
  • Muriate of Potash (MOP) 100%
  • Urea 100%
See every crop that suits Ballari

What it needs

Temperature

23–33 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 12–42 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

1,460–1,740 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Burhanpur Erode East Godavari Y.S.R. Kadapa Palakkad

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4 to 8.4.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Needs rich soil
  • K Needs plenty of potassium, zinc and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for each plant

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

For most fields

Nitrogen
200 g
per plant, over the crop
Phosphate
60 g
per plant, over the crop
Potash
300 g
per plant, over the crop

For each plant over the crop, in 3 or 4 splits

If your soil card says a nutrient is low, add about a quarter more of it.

Watch out for

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra
  • Panama wilt
    Disease

    Look for

    Older leaves turn yellow and hang down around the stem; the stem splits and is brown inside.

    What to do first

    Plant suckers from healthy fields or tissue-culture plants and don't replant banana in infected soil.

  • Sigatoka leaf spot
    Disease

    Look for

    Yellow streaks that turn into brown spots; leaves dry early.

    What to do first

    Cut off spotted leaves; spray propiconazole or mineral oil as your KVK advises.

  • Bunchy top
    Disease

    Look for

    Plants stay short with narrow, bunched leaves and dark green streaks.

    What to do first

    Dig out and destroy sick plants; plant virus-free tissue-culture plants and control aphids.

  • Stem weevil
    Pest

    Look for

    Holes with jelly-like ooze on the stem; the plant breaks.

    What to do first

    Keep the field clean; cut old stems into pieces to trap the weevils.

What an acre earns

At India's average yield and a recent price, named below. Your land, water and mandi will differ.

Left an acre, a year, once it bears

₹2,80,700

Yield India's average
173.6 quintals an acre
× Price mandi price through the year (Dec 2025–Nov 2026)
₹3,138 a quintal
= Income
₹5,44,800
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys
−₹2,64,100
= Left
₹2,80,700

This week banana sells at about ₹4,300 a quintal: India's middle price at 380 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹4,82,600 a year.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹4,35,800 to ₹6,53,800 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

It bears from its first year.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹4,050 a quintal
Lowest
December, ₹2,400 a quintal
₹4,050
₹2,400
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Ballari Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
24.0 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
173.6 quintals an acre (42.9 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
Maharashtra
15% of India's

States that grow it

Each state's share of India's production, in its latest year with figures (2025-26). Tap a state to open it.

Source: Horticulture area & production statistics (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

District figures cover only 30% of India's banana area, so the districts aren't listed. The states show where it grows.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Banana yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is neutral strong 155 districts
  • More soil that is alkaline moderate 155 districts

Banana yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic strong 155 districts
  • More soil low in potassium strong 155 districts

A pattern is not proof that soil causes the difference.

Source: Soil Health Card – soil nutrient analysis (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).