Potato

A winter crop. Sow in Oct–Nov, harvest in Jan–Feb.

Check it on your land
Season
Rabi
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

96% of its area.
Ready in
105 days
about 3½ months
Water
300–330 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
15–25 °C
0 °C survives 7–30 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Rabi 96% of its area
Today: rabi sowing time
J J A S O N D J F M A M
Sow Growing Harvest
The year starts in June, with the monsoon. Your district can shift a few weeks.

Sowing Growing Harvest

Will it grow on your land?

Lahaul And Spiti Himachal Pradesh
Water
Season

Possible in Lahaul And Spiti, with effort

Potato

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in May, harvest around September

This season's sowing time (April–May) is over.

Grown on 1,599 acres here. Priced from mandis across your state.

Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on

  • Needs care: Risky: 5 irrigations short
  • Suits: Frost risk in May
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 5 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 420 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 190 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):

  • May 18 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jun 22 °C / 10 °C
  • Jul 22 °C / 12 °C
  • Aug 21 °C / 11 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Nights in May 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).

  • 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 works

Money

Yield: about 80 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 (September–October 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).

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹1,190 2021
  2. ₹1,790 2022
  3. ₹1,310 2023
  4. ₹2,400 2024
  5. ₹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 ₹73,000 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 81% of local fields of this crop get it.

What local farmers put on it (share of fields):

  • Urea 81%
  • Nitro Phosphate Potash 55%
  • NPK Mixture 43%
  • Calcium Ammonium Nitrate 14%

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
131 kg
DAP
70 kg
MOP
67 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Lahaul And Spiti

What it needs

Temperature

15–25 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 7–30 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

300–330 mm over its season

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

Hooghly Paschim Medinipur Purba Bardhaman Agra Kannauj

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes slightly acidic soil. Grows from pH 4.2 to 8.5.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Ordinary farm soil is fine
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen and potassium
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 one acre

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
131 kg about 3 bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
70 kg about 1½ bags of 50 kg
MOP potash
67 kg about 1¼ bags of 50 kg

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. 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
  • Late blight
    Disease

    Look for

    Dark water-soaked patches on leaves with white mould underneath in cool, cloudy weather; a field can collapse within days.

    What to do first

    Plant healthy seed. When the weather turns cool and cloudy, spray mancozeb before it shows; once it appears, switch to metalaxyl with mancozeb or cymoxanil. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Early blight
    Disease

    Look for

    Brown spots with rings on the older leaves.

    What to do first

    Feed the crop well; spray mancozeb when spots appear. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Black scurf
    Disease

    Look for

    Black crusts on tubers that don't wash off; weak sprouts.

    What to do first

    Plant clean, treated seed tubers and rotate crops.

  • Cutworm
    Pest

    Look for

    Young plants cut off at the base at night; grey caterpillars curled in the soil.

    What to do first

    Plough well and keep the field free of weeds; treat the soil as your KVK advises.

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 season

₹41,800

Yield India's average
100.9 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price last season (Jan–Feb 2026)
₹950 a quintal
= Income
₹95,900
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys
−₹54,100
= Left
₹41,800

This week potato sells at about ₹1,000 a quintal: India's middle price at 676 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹46,800 a season.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹76,700 to ₹1,15,000 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
December, ₹1,200 a quintal
Lowest
March, ₹843 a quintal
₹843
₹1,200
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–Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Lahaul And Spiti Today's price across India

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
59.4 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
100.9 quintals an acre (24.9 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
Uttar Pradesh
29% of India's
Best yield
Aligarh
144 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.

34% of India's potato area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Hooghly West Bengal 5.4% 2.2 lakh acres
  2. 2 Paschim Medinipur West Bengal 4.2% 1.7 lakh acres
  3. 3 Purba Bardhaman West Bengal 4.0% 1.6 lakh acres
  4. 4 Agra Uttar Pradesh 3.9% 1.6 lakh acres
  5. 5 Banas Kantha Gujarat 3.0% 1.2 lakh acres
  6. 6 Kannauj Uttar Pradesh 3.0% 1.2 lakh acres
  7. 7 Firozabad Uttar Pradesh 3.0% 1.2 lakh acres
  8. 8 Hathras Uttar Pradesh 2.7% 1.1 lakh acres
  9. 9 Bankura West Bengal 2.4% 97,286 acres
  10. 10 Farrukhabad Uttar Pradesh 2.2% 90,954 acres

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

  1. 1.8–33
  2. 34–52
  3. 53–83
  4. 84–111
  5. 112–144
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.

Potato yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is neutral moderate 380 districts

Potato yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil that is acidic strong 380 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).