Chillies (Dry)
Sow in October, harvest around March
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 267 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on
- Needs care: Risky: 4 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Needs care: Soil 6/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 4 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 440 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 90 mm it can use in a normal year (30 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 170 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 17–30 °C on average, and survives 8–35 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 26 °C / 18 °C
- Nov 23 °C / 13 °C
- Dec 21 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 23 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 27 °C / 13 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Chillies (Dry): 6 out of 10 (okay).
Not in the score: organic carbon.
- Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
- Salt in the soil here can harm it.
- Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 6.0–7.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 14 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (your district's own figure looked wrong).
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 (March–April 2026): about ₹23,000 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹17,550 a quintal, the middle of 39 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov).
- ₹27,250 2023
- ₹24,000 2024
- ₹23,750 2025
Prices are usually best in September.
Typical costs are about ₹1.1 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
-
Short of nitrogen Your soil is likely short of nitrogen.
Add about a quarter more urea than the usual dose, in two or three splits. A pulse crop in rotation also adds nitrogen.
About 93% of local fields of this crop get it.
-
Short of potassium Your soil is likely short of potassium.
Add about a quarter more potash (MOP) than the usual dose.
About 78% of local fields of this crop get it.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 93%
- Muriate of Potash (MOP) 78%
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 63%
- Calcium Ammonium Nitrate 7%