Chillies (Dry)
Sow in October, harvest around March
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 780 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹34,000–₹51,000
per acre a season, before costs
Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹61,000–₹78,000 an acre a season
- Suits: Rain is enough
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain is enough in a normal year. Keep one irrigation ready for a dry year.
Needs about 480 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 250 mm it can use in a normal year (110 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 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 31 °C / 23 °C
- Nov 28 °C / 18 °C
- Dec 25 °C / 14 °C
- Jan 24 °C / 12 °C
- Feb 27 °C / 14 °C
- Mar 31 °C / 18 °C
Soil
Soil for Chillies (Dry): 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: sulphur.
- Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
- Most fields here are short of zinc.
Likes pH 6.0–7.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 3.1 quintals an acre here (district figures).
Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹13,731 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹17,550 a quintal, the middle of 39 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹58,000 a season at typical costs.
- ₹10,650 2021
- ₹14,980 2022
- ₹16,750 2023
- ₹12,910 2024
- ₹12,120 2025
Prices are usually best in November.
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
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Short of zinc Your soil is likely short of zinc.
Mix 10 kg of zinc sulphate per acre into the soil before sowing. One dose lasts two or three seasons.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.