Potato - The upcoming season crop

Potato is grown in India under diverse agroclimatic conditions.? The varieties should make the best use of the agroclimatic conditions and give high yield.? Broadly the potato growing zones in India could be classified into the northern hills, the northern plains, the eastern hills, the plateau region and the southern hills.? The growing season in the northern hills is the kharif season with long days.? The crop experiences water stress during the emergence and initial growth phase while during the maximum bulking phase it is invariably exposed to late blight infection.? Therefore varieties for this region requires resistance to late blight, should be able to withstand water stress, be able to yield well under long day conditions and the crop duration can be between 120 – 150 days.? Presently Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Giriraj are the main varieties for this region.

The northwestern plains comprises of the Indo Gangetic plains extending from Punjab in the West to West Bengal in the East.? Here, autumn is the main potato season.? The crop duration is short about 100-120 days in the West but a short spring crop can also be raised.? In the central and eastern Indo Gangetic plains, the winter season is short and spring crop is invariably not possible.? The potato varieties adapted to the Indo Gangetic plains should be short to medium duration, having moderate resistance to late blight.? At present Kufri Jawahar, Kufri Chandramukhi, Kufri Sutlej are recommended for the western plains while Kufri Bahar, Kufri Anand and Kufri Ashoka have been recommended for the central plains while Kufri Pukhraj, Kufri Sindhuri and Kufri Ashoka have been recommended for the eastern plains.

In the eastern hills, two crop viz summer and kharif crops are taken.? Both the crops are relatively short and the kharf crop is prone to late blight.? Resistance to late blight is a must.? Presently Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Megha are the varieties recommended for the region.

In the plateau region two crops viz kharif and rabi are taken in many places.? The kharif crop encounters long days, erratic rainfall, warm temperatures, high incidence of early blight and mites. Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Lauvkar is recommended for this season.? The rabi crop is of very short duration and early bulking variety like Kufri Lauvkar is successful in this season.? Kufri Jyoti is also grown in this season.

In the southern hills, potato is grown in the Nilgiri hills. Three crops are taken. Potato cyst nematode and late blight are the problems of the region.? Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Swarna are the varieties recommended for the region.