Azeem Ahmed Khan

Pakistan's chili crop saw modest gains in both cultivated area and overall production during 2025–26, yet yields remained below official projections, documents available with Wealth Pakistan show. According to the documents, the cultivated area increased 1.1% to 49,500 hectares during the current season (2025-26) from 49,000 hectares a year earlier, while production edged up 0.5% to 114,400 tons from 113,800 tons. The national average yield, however, slipped by 0.6% to 2,312 kg per hectare from 2,325 kg per hectare a year earlier.

Sindh remained the leading producer, contributing the bulk of national output with 85,300 tons from 35,700 hectares, almost unchanged from last year’s 35,600 hectares. Punjab followed with 17,800 tons, down 1.1% from 18,000 tons, despite an increase of 1.5% in the sown area to 6,900 hectares. Balochistan’s production rose 2.9% to 10,500 tons on an expansion of 3.2% in area from 6,300 hectares to 6,500 hectares, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) saw a sharp increase of 56% in both area and production, though its share remained minimal at 800 tons.

The yield trends varied across all provinces. Punjab recorded a 2.5% fall in yield to 2,579.7 kg per hectare from 2,647.1 kg per hectare, while Balochistan and KP maintained stable yields. Sindh, the largest grower, sustained its exceptionally high yield of 2,389.4 kg per hectare. Despite these gains, the national chili crop fell significantly short of government targets during 2025-26.

Against the Federal Committee on Agriculture’s (FCA) target of 54,400 hectares, only 49,500 hectares were cultivated, about 9% less. The production was estimated at 114,600 tons compared to the target of 146,400 tons, reflecting a shortfall of 21.7%. The national average yield of 2,316.2 kg per hectare also remained 13.9% below the FCA’s target of 2,690.4 kg per hectare. Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fell slightly short of meeting their targets.

Punjab achieved about 90% of its production goal and 87.3% of its area target, while KP fell short by 22% in area and 21% in production. In contrast, Balochistan exceeded both area and production targets by 8.3% and 11.1%, respectively, with a yield improvement of 2.6%. Sindh, which contributes over 70% of the country’s chilies, underperformed, missing its production target by 26.4%. However, it maintained steady yields between 2024-25 and 2025-26.

Credit: INP-WealthPk