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

Sow Harvest

JJun JJul AAug SSep OOct NNov DDec JJan FFeb MMar AApr MMay

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?

Karaikal Puducherry

Good fit in Karaikal

Chillies (Dry)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in August, harvest around January

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

No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Priced from mandis across India.

₹1.6 lakh–₹2.3 lakh

per acre a season, before costs

After typical costs: ₹40,000–₹1.2 lakh an acre a season

Suits: Rain is enough
Suits: Ideal temperatures
Suits: Soil 8/10

Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain is enough in a normal year. Keep one irrigation ready for a dry year.

Needs about 550 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 720 mm it can use in a normal year, and 460 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

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

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

Aug 35 °C / 25 °C
Sep 34 °C / 25 °C
Oct 32 °C / 25 °C
Nov 30 °C / 24 °C
Dec 29 °C / 23 °C
Jan 29 °C / 22 °C

Soil

Soil for Chillies (Dry): 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: organic carbon, sulphur and boron.

The pH here suits it.
Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 6.0–7.5.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 14 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹14,188 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 leave about ₹1.2 lakh a season after typical costs.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):

₹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 ₹1.2 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.

Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

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 Karaikal

What it needs

Temperature

17–30 °C

best 17–30° 8° 35°

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

best 6–7.5

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

JJan FFeb MMar AApr MMay JJun JJul AAug SSep OOct NNov DDec

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Karaikal 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.

Andhra Pradesh 39% 8.4 lakh tonnes Telangana 16% 3.4 lakh tonnes Madhya Pradesh 15% 3.1 lakh tonnes Karnataka 10% 2.2 lakh tonnes Odisha 4.2% Punjab 3.1%

19 other states 12%

Andhra Pradesh 39% 8.4 lakh tonnes Telangana 16% 3.4 lakh tonnes Madhya Pradesh 15% 3.1 lakh tonnes Karnataka 10%

21 other states 20%

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.

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

0.8–3.0
3.1–3.6
3.7–5.3
5.5–13
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.

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).