Chillies (Dry)

A monsoon crop. Sow in Jul–Aug, harvest in Dec–Jan.

Check it on your land
Season
Kharif
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

84% of its area. Also grown in rabi.
Ready in
160 days
about 5½ months
Water
590–630 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
17–30 °C
0 °C survives 8–35 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Kharif 84% of its area
Rabi 16% of its area
Today: rabi sowing time
J J A S O N D J F M A M
Sow Growing Harvest
The year starts in June, with the monsoon. Your district can shift a few weeks.

Sowing Growing Harvest

Will it grow on your land?

Chennai Tamil Nadu
Water
Season

We can't judge it in Chennai yet: no rain and temperature records.

Chillies (Dry)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in July, harvest around December

This season's sowing time (July–August) is over.

Grown on 4.9 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.

₹26,000–₹39,000

per acre a season, before costs

Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹73,000–₹86,000 an acre a season

  • Not known: No rain data
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Not known: No soil data
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Needs about 620 mm of water here in its growing months.

Temperature

Grows best at 17–30 °C on average, and survives 8–35 °C.

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

  • Jul 36 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Aug 35 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Sep 35 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Oct 33 °C / 25 °C
  • Nov 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Dec 29 °C / 22 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Likes pH 6.0–7.5. We have no pH figures for this place.

Money

Yield: about 2.4 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (December 2025–January 2026): about ₹13,638 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 ₹70,000 a season at typical costs.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹10,650 2021
  2. ₹14,980 2022
  3. ₹16,750 2023
  4. ₹12,910 2024
  5. ₹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.

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
85 kg
DAP
53 kg
MOP
40 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Chennai

What it needs

Temperature

17–30 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 8–35 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

590–630 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Guntur Palnadu Ballari Prakasam Khammam

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 8.5.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • K Needs plenty of potassium and sulphur
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); ICAR-IIHR and ANGRAU; FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29; 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 one acre

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
85 kg about 2 bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
53 kg about 1 bag of 50 kg
MOP potash
40 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. 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
  • Thrips
    Pest

    Look for

    Leaves curl upward like a boat.

    What to do first

    Use blue sticky traps; spray when many plants curl. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Mites
    Pest

    Look for

    Leaves curl downward and turn thick and shiny.

    What to do first

    Spray wettable sulphur. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Fruit rot and dieback
    Disease

    Look for

    Dark sunken spots on ripening fruit; twigs dry from the tips.

    What to do first

    Use clean seed; spray a copper fungicide or mancozeb. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Leaf curl virus
    Disease

    Look for

    Leaves curl and shrink; plants stay short; spread by whitefly.

    What to do first

    Raise seedlings under net, pull out sick plants and control whitefly.

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 season

₹72,000

Yield India's average
11.7 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Dec 2025–Jan 2026)
₹13,638 a quintal
= Income
₹1,59,900
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys
−₹87,900
= Left
₹72,000

This week chillies (dry) sells at about ₹17,550 a quintal: India's middle price at 39 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹1,17,800 a season.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹1,27,900 to ₹1,91,800 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
November, ₹21,575 a quintal
Lowest
April, ₹13,563 a quintal
₹13,563
₹21,575
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 Chennai Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
18.3 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
11.7 quintals an acre (2.9 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
Andhra Pradesh
19% of India's
Best yield
East Godavari
25 quintals an acre

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.

56% of India's chillies (dry) area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Palnadu Andhra Pradesh 9.8% 1.4 lakh acres
  2. 2 Kurnool Andhra Pradesh 8.8% 1.3 lakh acres
  3. 3 Ballari Karnataka 7.7% 1.1 lakh acres
  4. 4 Prakasam Andhra Pradesh 5.8% 84,947 acres
  5. 5 Ananthapuramu Andhra Pradesh 4.7% 69,792 acres
  6. 6 Khammam Telangana 4.6% 68,047 acres
  7. 7 Dharwad Karnataka 4.5% 65,542 acres
  8. 8 Mahabubabad Telangana 3.3% 49,167 acres
  9. 9 Guntur Andhra Pradesh 3.2% 46,997 acres
  10. 10 Nandyal Andhra Pradesh 3.2% 46,345 acres

Chillies (Dry) yield, quintals an acre (average of 2018-19 to 2022-23 in most districts)

  1. 0.8–3.0
  2. 3.1–3.6
  3. 3.7–5.3
  4. 5.5–13
  5. 14–34
No data

1 Numbers match the list: the districts with the most area.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Where yields are highest

Districts growing it on at least 100 ha, against the average across India. The line runs from India's average to each district.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Chillies (Dry) yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil high in phosphorus moderate 248 districts

Chillies (Dry) yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil low in phosphorus weak 248 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).