Chilli pays well only when you control thrips and sell dry pods at a good grade. On Guntur-type Sannam or Teja chilli, cost of cultivation in a published Guntur farm study was roughly ₹1.7 to ₹1.85 lakh per acre, so you need about 10 quintals of dry chilli per acre at around ₹17,000 per quintal just to break even. Yields of 8 to 10 quintals per acre are common, which means many growers make little or lose money in a bad year; good hybrids and good crop care push that to a clear profit.
India is the world's largest chilli producer (around 36% of world output, per the Plant Protection Adviser's office), and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka lead. Since 2021-22 a new black thrips has made the crop far riskier in exactly those states, so pest management is covered in detail below.
Choosing the type: what the market pays for
| Type | Main use | What buyers look for | Typical region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sannam (S4, 334) | Dry red chilli for powder, export, masala | Medium to high heat, good colour | Guntur, Khammam, Prakasam |
| Teja (S17) | Very hot; export and oleoresin | High pungency, deep red | Guntur, Khammam, Warangal |
| Byadgi | Colour extraction, paprika, mild masala | Very high colour, low heat, wrinkled pod | Karnataka (Haveri, Dharwad, Ballari) |
| Sankeshwari | Spice powder | Bright red, moderate heat | Maharashtra-Karnataka border |
| Green chilli hybrids | Fresh market | Length, colour, shelf life, thrips and virus tolerance | Across India |
Heat and colour values in the trade differ by lot, so ask your buyer or spice board trader what grade he pays a premium for before choosing seed. Many seed companies sell Teja-type and Sannam-type hybrids; pick those that are tolerant to leaf curl and have been tested in your district by the KVK or horticulture university. Do not buy seed without a packet label showing lot and germination date.
Season, nursery and planting
- Seedlings. Raise healthy seedlings on raised beds or, better, in protrays under insect-proof net; DPPQS says 5 to 6 week old seedlings are ideal for transplanting.
- Timing. In the Andhra-Telangana belt the main crop is typically nursery in July-August and transplanting a few weeks later, with pickings from about December to March-April. Follow your local university's sowing window and try to keep the whole village on one schedule - DPPQS stresses that staggered planting feeds thrips.
- Spacing. 60 x 30 cm or 45 x 45 cm (DPPQS), which works out to about 22,000 and about 20,000 plants per acre (55,600 and 49,400 per hectare). Closer spacing raises thrips and disease pressure.
- Soil. Well-drained black or light soils with assured irrigation. Chilli in ill-drained fields suffers much more disease.
Feeding and water
- DPPQS advises 25 to 30 t per hectare (10 to 12 t per acre) of FYM, with vermicompost and neem cake as basal dose. Phosphorus only as basal dose. Use straight fertilisers, and avoid too much nitrogen since soft, leafy plants attract thrips.
- Indicative chemical doses in many state packages are about 120 kg N, 40 to 60 kg P2O5 and 20 to 40 kg K2O per hectare (about 48 : 16-24 : 8-16 kg per acre), split in 3 to 4 nitrogen doses. DPPQS recommends enhanced potash for resistance. Hybrids under fertigation are fed higher. Take the final dose from your Soil Health Card or the local KVK; see Soil Health Card.
- Irrigate at about 40 to 60% depletion of available soil moisture and protect the crop at flowering and fruit set. Sprinkler use disturbs thrips, but wet foliage raises fruit rot risk, so drip with mulch is usually the better trade-off. See drip irrigation.
- Flower drop: DPPQS suggests NAA 10 ppm (1 ml in 9 litres) sprayed 2 to 3 times at 20-day intervals, in the cool part of the day.
Thrips: the biggest risk since 2021
Before 2021 the usual chilli thrips was Scirtothrips dorsalis. From 2021-22 an invasive species, Thrips parvispinus (black or South East Asian thrips), took over in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka and caused 50 to 80% damage in reported outbreaks. It lives in the flowers and under leaves, and it was worst in the heavy north-east monsoon rain (DPPQS, June 2022). Signs: reddish-brown leaf undersides, yellow blotches above, distorted leaves, brown streaks on petals, flower drop and poor fruit set. Thrips also carry tospoviruses.
The DPPQS and ICAR advisory is based on prevention, because spraying alone failed in 2021-22:
- Deep summer ploughing to kill pupae in soil; frequent inter-cultivation every 15 to 20 days.
- Seed treatment and seedling root dip with a registered neonicotinoid as per the advisory (imidacloprid 10 g per kg seed; root dip 0.5 ml per litre for 30 minutes). Confirm current registration and label with your KVK.
- Silver-coloured plastic mulch (25-30 micron) to reduce pupation, 2 to 3 border rows of maize, sorghum or bajra, and blue or white sticky traps (65 to 75 per hectare for mass trapping, 20 to 25 for monitoring).
- Neem cake 500 kg per hectare plus vermicompost, and bio-agents such as Beauveria bassiana or Lecanicillium lecanii in rotation, used early before the population builds.
- Clean bunds: remove Parthenium, Cleome, wild Solanum and other weeds where thrips shelter. Rotate with cereals.
- Do not spray broad-spectrum mixtures "every week". This kills natural enemies and promotes resistance. Use only products registered for chilli at the label dose and follow pre-harvest interval.
Other problems
- Leaf curl and mosaic viruses: uproot and bury infected plants early, control vectors (thrips, whitefly, aphids), grow tolerant hybrids, and keep the nursery under net.
- Fruit rot and anthracnose: worst in rain at ripening and on closely spaced or over-irrigated crops; pick ripe fruit promptly and use registered fungicides only where needed.
- Wilt and root rot: avoid waterlogging; do not plant chilli after chilli, tomato or brinjal in the same field.
Picking and drying
Pick fully red fruit in several rounds. Dry on clean tarpaulin or raised platforms, not bare soil, turn regularly and cover at night and in rain until pods are brittle (around 10% moisture). Rain-damaged, mouldy or stained pods fetch much lower grades, and lots for export can be rejected for aflatoxin or pesticide residue. Grade and bag by quality, because mixing a clean lot with a stained one sets the price at the lower grade. Stems (calyx) on or off depends on the buyer.
Cost, yield and profit per acre
Cost of cultivation per acre from a published Guntur study was ₹1,69,798 for Sannam and ₹1,85,027 for Teja (we could not verify the study's year, so input prices today may be higher). Yield is commonly reported at 8 to 10 quintals of dry chilli per acre, reaching 15 in very good crops. Price reference: the Guntur average was about ₹16,864 per quintal on 24 September 2026 (market range ₹974 to ₹26,000 depending on grade and crop quality).
| Dry chilli yield per acre | Gross at ₹16,800 / q | Net on ₹1.70 lakh cost | Net on ₹1.85 lakh cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 quintals | ₹1,34,400 | loss of ₹35,600 | loss of ₹50,600 |
| 10 quintals | ₹1,68,000 | about break-even | loss of ₹17,000 |
| 12 quintals | ₹2,01,600 | profit ₹31,600 | profit ₹16,600 |
| 15 quintals | ₹2,52,000 | profit ₹82,000 | profit ₹67,000 |
| 20 quintals (well-run hybrid, no thrips loss) | ₹3,36,000 | profit ₹1,66,000 | profit ₹1,51,000 |
Every ₹1,000 per quintal change in price moves the result by ₹10,000 at 10 quintals. Losses of 50 to 80% from thrips, as DPPQS reports, would wipe out the season. Treat the table as a break-even tool: plug in your own costs and expected yield before deciding acreage, and do not take a larger loan than you can repay at the low-yield row.
Selling
Guntur's Mirchi Yard is the largest dry chilli market in India; growers also sell in Khammam, Warangal and Byadgi. Options include selling at harvest, storing in cold storage to sell later (storage charges and quality loss must be weighed against expected price rise), or registering on e-NAM where your mandi is linked. Watch chilli mandi bhav for trends. There is no MSP for chilli, so your bargaining position rests on grade, storage and timing.
Government support
- MIDH: for green chillies under hybrid vegetables the 2025 guidelines give a cost norm of ₹60,000 per hectare and 40% assistance (₹24,000 per hectare) for up to 2 ha per beneficiary in a single instalment, 50% in NE and Himalayan states and Scheduled areas. The MIDH spice lines list seed spices, ginger, turmeric, garlic and perennial spices, not dry chilli, so do not assume a dry-chilli subsidy without confirming with your horticulture office.
- Drip and mulching support under the horticulture mission, a Kisan Credit Card for working capital, and PMFBY where chilli is notified in your district. Check the notification list before relying on cover.