Potato
Sow in January, harvest around August
Grown on 322 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.
Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on
- Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
- Needs care: Frost risk in January
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 630 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 230 mm it can use in a normal year, and 120 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 15–25 °C on average, and survives 7–30 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jan 3 °C / -6 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 5 °C / -4 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 9 °C / -1 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- May 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 23 °C / 12 °C
- Jul 22 °C / 13 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Nights in January can bring frost while the plants are young. Sow a little later, or cover the seedlings on cold nights.
Soil
Soil for Potato: 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: sulphur and boron.
- 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 33 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).
Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (August–September 2026): about ₹1,500 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹1,425 a quintal, the middle of 24 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov).
- ₹1,190 2021
- ₹1,790 2022
- ₹1,310 2023
- ₹2,400 2024
- ₹1,430 2025
Prices swing a lot from year to year, so income can be well above or below this range.
Prices are usually best in August.
Typical costs are about ₹71,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
-
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 96% of local fields of this crop get it.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 96%