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?

Palakkad Kerala
Water
Season

Won't work: too dry without irrigation

Banana

Holds the land all year

Grown on 28,659 acres here. Sold at 23 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 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

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

Needs about 1,460 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 710 mm it can use in a normal year, and 570 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 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Jul 29 °C / 23 °C
  • Aug 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Sep 30 °C / 24 °C
  • Oct 31 °C / 24 °C
  • Nov 31 °C / 24 °C
  • Dec 32 °C / 23 °C
  • Jan 33 °C / 23 °C
  • Feb 34 °C / 24 °C
  • Mar 35 °C / 25 °C
  • Apr 34 °C / 26 °C
  • May 33 °C / 25 °C
  • Jun 30 °C / 23 °C

Soil

Soil for Banana: 9 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: nitrogen.

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

Likes pH 5.5–7.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 40 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).

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 (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹4,100 a quintal at mandis in your district.

This week: about ₹4,800 a quintal, the middle of 11 mandis in your district (latest 13 Nov).

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹3,500 2021
  2. ₹5,350 2022
  3. ₹4,130 2023
  4. ₹4,230 2024
  5. ₹4,280 2025

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

The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 96 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.

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

    Use single super phosphate instead of DAP, or add about 100 kg of gypsum per acre 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):

  • Muriate of Potash (MOP) 81%
  • Urea 77%
  • Urea Ammonium Phosphate 25%
  • NPK Mixture 12%
See every crop that suits Palakkad

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 Palakkad 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).