Black Pepper

Water

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

Needs about 1,800 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 290 mm it can use in a normal year, and 250 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 22–35 °C on average, and survives 10–40 °C.

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

• Jun 40 °C / 28 °C
• Jul 36 °C / 27 °C
• Aug 34 °C / 26 °C
• Sep 35 °C / 24 °C
• Oct 34 °C / 19 °C
• Nov 29 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 23 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 20 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 24 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 30 °C / 15 °C
• Apr 38 °C / 21 °C
• May 42 °C / 26 °C
• Jun 40 °C / 28 °C

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.

Soil

Soil for Black Pepper: 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: nitrogen, copper and boron.

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

Likes pH 6.0–7.0.

Money

Yield: about 1.9 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

A new planting gives its first real harvest after about 3 years. The money here is for plants already bearing.

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 at last season's harvest (December 2025–March 2026): about ₹65,872 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹68,511 a quintal, the middle of 33 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹65,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.