India produces about 50 per cent of the world production of chili. During the last 47 years (1950- 51 to 1995-96) there has been 1.41 and 2.34 times increase in the area and production of the chilies respectively (Table 11 .XIV). Three states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa together account for 57 per cent of the area and 72 per cent of the production of chilies in the country.
Andhra Pradesh accounts for 26.43 per cent of the total area and 48.14 per cent of the total production of dry chilies in the country (Table 11.XV). The leading producers are Guntur, War a gal and Khammam districts which together account for 50 per cent of the state’s output. Others include Prakasam, East and West Godavari districts.
Karnataka
Kamataka has 19.16 per cent of the total area under chilies in India but its output is only 14.84 per cent of the total production of the country. Here about 75 per cent of the state’s production of chilies is supplid by Dharwad, Shimoga, Hassan, Belgaum, Mysore and Chitradurga districts.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Orissa
Orissa occupies fourth place in area (11.23%) but third place in the production (9.07%) of chillies in the country. Over two-third of the state’s production comes from Kalahandi, Ganjam, Cuttack, Balasore, Sambalpur and Koraput districts.
Maharashtra occupies 12.11 per cent of the country’s chilli area and contributes 6.29 per cent of its total production. The crop is widely grown in Amravati, Chandrapur, Dhule, Jalgaon and Nanded districts which together account for about 50% of the state’s production.
West Bengal
ADVERTISEMENTS:
West Bengal contributes 6.83 per cent of the total area and 5.7 per cent of the total production of chilies in the country. Here Medinipur and West Dinajpur districts are the main producers.
Rajasthan
Rajasthan provides 3.41 per cent of the total area and 3.40 per cent of the total production of chilies in the country. Here bulk of the production comes from Jodhpur, Sawai Madhopur, Kota, Ajmer, Jaipur and Udaipur districts.
Others
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Other minor producers of chillies accounting for leass than three per cent of the countries production include Tamil Nadu (Tirunelveli, Ramanathapuram, Madurai, Tiruchchirappalli and Coimbatore districts), Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Bihar (Patna, Darbhanga, Munger, Shahabad, Muzaffarpur, Purnea and Begusarai districts), Punjab (Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Jalandhar and Firozpur districts), and Haryana (Karnal, Sonipat and Rohtak districts).
Trade
Most of the production of chilies is consumed locally. Only a small quantity (about 1%) is exported to Sri Lanka, U.S.A. and Russia. During 1977-78 India exported 5,000 tons of chilies worth of Rs. 5.12 crores which increased to 33,398 tons valued at Rs. 97.9 crores is 1991-92.