Potato
Sow in October, harvest around January
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 12,465 acres here. Sold at 6 mandis in your district.
₹30,000–₹45,000
per acre a season, before costs
Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹10,000–₹25,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 4 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 4 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 290 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 0 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 130 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 15–25 °C on average, and survives 7–30 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 33 °C / 20 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 29 °C / 13 °C
- Dec 24 °C / 9 °C
- Jan 22 °C / 8 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Potato: 8 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 5.0–6.2.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 101 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).
On rain alone it gets about 45% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 45% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹823 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹600 a quintal, the middle of 85 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹28,000 a season at typical costs.
- ₹1,050 2021
- ₹1,300 2022
- ₹1,000 2023
- ₹1,990 2024
- ₹1,190 2025
Prices swing a lot from year to year, so income can be well above or below this range.
Prices are usually best in December.
Typical costs are about ₹56,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 104 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.
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Short of nitrogen Your soil is likely short of nitrogen.
Add about a quarter more urea than the usual dose, in two or three splits. A pulse crop in rotation also adds nitrogen.
About 90% of local fields of this crop get it.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 90%
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 58%
- NPK Mixture 1%
- Single Super Phosphate (SSP) 1%