Betel Leaves

Water

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

Needs about 1,660 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 510 mm it can use in a normal year, and 400 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 22–27 °C on average, and survives 17–31 °C.

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

• Jun 39 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
• Jul 35 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
• Aug 33 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
• Sep 33 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)
• Oct 32 °C / 18 °C
• Nov 27 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 22 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 18 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 23 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 28 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
• Apr 36 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
• May 40 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)
• Jun 39 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Nights in January can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.

Days in June get hotter than it likes. Young plants need shade and water then.

Soil

Soil for Betel Leaves: 5 out of 10 (poor).

Not in the score: nitrogen and boron.

• Soil here is often too alkaline for it.
• Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
• Most fields here are short of organic carbon.

Likes pH 5.0–5.6.

Money

Yield: about 87 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

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 ₹15,000 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹7,750 a quintal, the middle of 6 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Prices are usually best in March.

Typical costs are about ₹5.6 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.