Coconut

Planted once, harvested year after year.

Check it on your land
Season
Whole year
100% of its area.
Water
1,460–1,700 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
22–34 °C
0 °C survives 14–38 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Planted once, usually at the start of the rains. It stays for years: the first real harvest comes after about 5 years, then one every year.

Will it grow on your land?

Water
Season

Pick your place and water to see:

  • Whether Coconut suits your land Good fit, possible or won't work, with the reasons.
  • What it could earn an acre From yields near you and mandi prices.
  • Water and fertiliser it needs Irrigations for your water, and bags for one acre.

What it needs

Temperature

22–34 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 14–38 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

1,460–1,700 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Tumakuru Kozhikode Hassan Malappuram Coimbatore

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.3 to 8.7.

Soil

  • Takes a little salt
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • K Needs plenty of potassium and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); 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 each tree

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

For most fields

Nitrogen
500 g
per tree, each year
Phosphate
320 g
per tree, each year
Potash
1,200 g
per tree, each year

For each palm a year, in two splits, with 50 kg farmyard manure

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
  • Rhinoceros beetle
    Pest

    Look for

    V-shaped cuts in opened fronds; holes in the crown.

    What to do first

    Hook out the beetles and keep manure pits clean; put neem cake in the leaf axils.

  • Red palm weevil
    Pest

    Look for

    Holes in the trunk oozing brown liquid; the crown wilts.

    What to do first

    Avoid wounding the trunk and use pheromone traps; call your KVK early.

  • Bud rot
    Disease

    Look for

    The youngest leaf turns yellow and wilts; the bud rots with a foul smell.

    What to do first

    Cut away the rotten part and apply Bordeaux paste; spray Bordeaux mixture before the monsoon.

  • Eriophyid mite
    Pest

    Look for

    Triangular brown patches on young nuts; nuts small and cracked.

    What to do first

    Feed the palm well; spray neem on the bunches.

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 year, once it bears

₹43,400

Yield India's average
12.8 quintals an acre
× Price mandi price through the year (Dec 2025–May 2026, Sep–Nov 2026)
₹5,050 a quintal
= Income
₹64,800
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys
−₹21,400
= Left
₹43,400

This week coconut sells at about ₹5,000 a quintal: India's middle price at 67 mandis, latest 12 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹42,800 a year.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹51,800 to ₹77,800 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

It bears from about year 5: nothing to sell before.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
December, ₹6,200 a quintal
Lowest
May, ₹4,775 a quintal
₹4,775
₹6,200
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–May 2026, Sep–Nov 2026).

Copra, the dried kernel, has a government support price for the 2026 season: ₹12,027 a quintal for milling copra and ₹12,500 for ball copra, set by the Union Cabinet on 12 December 2025 on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. Fresh nuts have none.

Latest prices at mandis near you Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
54.1 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
12.8 quintals an acre (3.2 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
Kerala
34% of India's
Best yield
Thanjavur
31 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.

48% of India's coconut area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Tumakuru Karnataka 9.3% 4.6 lakh acres
  2. 2 Kozhikode Kerala 5.7% 2.8 lakh acres
  3. 3 Hassan Karnataka 5.2% 2.6 lakh acres
  4. 4 Malappuram Kerala 5.2% 2.6 lakh acres
  5. 5 Coimbatore Tamil Nadu 4.4% 2.2 lakh acres
  6. 6 Kannur Kerala 4.3% 2.1 lakh acres
  7. 7 Thrissur Kerala 3.9% 2.0 lakh acres
  8. 8 Thiruvananthapuram Kerala 3.5% 1.7 lakh acres
  9. 9 Tiruppur Tamil Nadu 3.3% 1.6 lakh acres
  10. 10 Kasaragod Kerala 3.2% 1.6 lakh acres

Coconut yield, quintals an acre (average of 2018-19 to 2022-23 in most districts)

  1. 3.0–10
  2. 11–15
  3. 16–22
  4. 23–27
  5. 28–69
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.

Coconut yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is alkaline moderate 146 districts
  • More soil that is neutral weak 146 districts
  • More soil high in potassium weak 147 districts

Coconut yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic moderate 146 districts
  • More soil low in potassium weak 147 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).