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?

Puducherry Puducherry
Water
Season

Possible in Puducherry, with effort

Chillies (Dry)

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in October, harvest around March

Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.

Grown on 6.4 acres here. Sold at 2 mandis in your district.

₹1.8 lakh–₹2.7 lakh

per acre a season, before costs

After typical costs: ₹68,000–₹1.6 lakh an acre a season

  • Needs care: Risky: 3 irrigations short
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 3 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 570 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 460 mm it can use in a normal year, and 220 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):

  • Oct 32 °C / 24 °C
  • Nov 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Dec 29 °C / 22 °C
  • Jan 30 °C / 21 °C
  • Feb 31 °C / 22 °C
  • Mar 33 °C / 23 °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.
  • 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 works

Money

Yield: about 14 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (your district's own figure looked wrong).

On rain alone it gets about 81% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 81% of this yield.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (April 2026): about ₹20,190 a quintal at mandis in your district.

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 ₹84,000 a season after typical costs.

Prices are usually best in April.

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

The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 16 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.

  • 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.

  • Short of potassium Your soil is likely short of potassium.

    Add about a quarter more potash (MOP) than the usual dose.

    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 Puducherry

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

₹72,500

Yield India's average
11.7 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Mar–Apr 2026)
₹13,731 a quintal
= Income
₹1,61,000
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys
−₹88,500
= Left
₹72,500

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 ₹1,17,200 a season.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹1,28,800 to ₹1,93,200 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 Puducherry 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).