✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Warm-season vegetable · Fruit vegetable

Bell Pepper

Capsicum annuum · Solanaceae

Bell Pepper is a warm-temperate herbaceous crop that grows best in the 17–30°C range with 600–1250 mm of rain, cropping over a 60–180-day season. Today it is grown mostly in China, India and Türkiye.

Optimal temp
17–30 °C
Annual rain
600–1250 mm
Max altitude
3,000 m
Cold limit
8°C
Growing cycle
60–180 d
Climate-fit land
35 % world

How it grows

Bell Pepper
Photo: Michelet-密是力 (talk) · Public domain
🫐 On a shrub

Bell Pepper grows on a woody shrub, its fruit held above the ground.

What it’s worth to grow

$1.01 / kg at the farm gate
$$$$$
Mid-value
pricier than 66% of all crops · #3 of 22 vegetables
Ranked against similar crops — Vegetables
Asparagus$3.17/kg
Okra$1.57/kg
Bell Pepper ◀$1.01/kg
Lettuce$0.91/kg
Chicory$0.91/kg
Leek$0.90/kg
Cauliflower$0.88/kg
Broccoli$0.88/kg
Globe Artichoke$0.83/kg
Tomato$0.82/kg

Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 448 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.

Where Earth's climate suits bell pepper

Global climatic suitability map for Bell Pepper
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
35% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production · FAOSTAT 2024
World harvest 62.1M t/yr
China17.31M t
India5.32M t
Türkiye3.43M t
Mexico3.22M t
Indonesia3.04M t
Spain1.52M t
Egypt1.08M t
Nigeria777k t
Latest reported year. Source: FAO FAOSTAT.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
United States of America
China
India
Dem. Rep. Congo
Australia
Indonesia
Argentina
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

The climate where it grows

China🌧 133% rain · wet
15°C · 1317 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
India🌧 143% rain · wet
25°C · 1405 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Türkiye🌧 78% rain · dry
16°C · 1034 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Mexico🌧 98% rain · near normal
22°C · 1250 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND

— mean monthly temperature   ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 17–30°C · tolerates 8–35°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 600–1250 mm · tolerates 500–1700 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 4.5–7.0 · tolerates 4.5–7.0
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±50° · soil pH 4.5–7.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 60–180 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Cold & frost. A frost-sensitive crop: temperatures near or below freezing damage or kill it, so it is confined to frost-free seasons and warm climates.
  • Drought. Relatively drought-hardy, but a failed rainy season still cuts yield sharply where irrigation is absent.

Related crops