Sources of Chillies in India Production areas

Sources of Chillies

Chillies are the dried ripe red fruits of the genus capsicum. The two well-known species are Capsicum annum L. and Capsicum frutenscens L. Pungency and color are the two main quality attributes in chilies. The red color of chilies is due to the presence of carotenoid pigments like capsanthin, (major pigment, 35%) capsorubin, zeaxanthin, violaxanthin, cryptoxanthin, β-carotene etc. These pigments are present in chilies mainly in the esterified form, and to a small extent in non-esterified forms.

India is world’s largest producer and consumer of spices and chilli. A huge amount of spices is also exported all over the world. Chilly is available in throughout India. It is one of the abundantly domestically used as well as commercially used spices. The chilli has innumerable uses for commercial, nutritional as well as medicinal. It is used for preparation of oleoresin that has great export potential and demand in the world market. In addition, it is medically used as pain killer, Antibiotic as well as included in Ayurvedic medicines.

Chilli was introduced in India by the great Portuguese explorer Vasco-da-Gama. The spice chilli blended well in Indian cooking. Chilli became extremely popular in India. The climate in India was favorable to cultivate chillies and soon many varieties of chilli were available in India. Places like Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Kashmir became famous for different varieties in chilli. Varieties of chilli grown in India are

Naga Jolokia
Birdseye or Dhani Chillies
Byadagi or Kaddi Chillies
Ellachipur Sanman Chillies
Guntur Sanman Chillies
Hindpur Chillies
Jwala Chillies
Kanthari Chillies
Kashmiri Mirch
Mundu Chillies or Gundu Molzuka
Nalcheti Chillies
Tomato Chilli or Warangal Chappatta

Production areas:

Andhra Pradesh stands first in the list of chilli-producing states in India and also has the maximum acreage under chilli cultivation in the country with a production of around 2.7 lakh tonnes of chillies. Karnataka follows Andhra Pradesh, contributing 14 percent of the country’s production.The major producers are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,Orissa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh alone commands around 55.77% of the chilli production in India. The major chilly growing districts of Andhra Pradesh are Guntur, Warangal, Khammam, in Karnataka Raichur, Bellary, Byadgi and dharwad region are the major spot markets and the production centers.

Chilli peppers are typically produced on small farms, less than 1 ha in size, in areas where cheap labour is available for harvesting. The largest producer is India, with an estimated 894,000 ha devoted to the crop annually. India is the largest exporter of dried chilli in the world. The second-largest producer is China, which grows an estimated 216,000 ha annually and also exports sizeable quantities of dried chilli. Its production level covers around 1.1 million tonnes annually. It is cultivated in all the states and union territories of the country.

As per the latest statistics, India produced 800,100 tonnes of dry chilli from an area of 930,000 hectares.Guntur is Asia’s largest market for chillies.About 80 lakhs to one corer bags of chillies , weighing approximately 35 to 50 kgs is traded during the season at Guntur market