Potato
Sow in October, harvest around January
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 1.2 lakh acres here. Sold at 2 mandis in your district.
₹22,000–₹33,000
per acre a season, before costs
Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹22,000–₹33,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 5 irrigations short
- Needs care: Very hot in October
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 5 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 360 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 150 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 35 °C / 20 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 32 °C / 15 °C
- Dec 29 °C / 12 °C
- Jan 27 °C / 11 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Days in October get hotter than it likes. Time sowing so it flowers before then.
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.
- Most fields here are short of organic carbon.
Likes pH 5.0–6.2.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 123 quintals an acre here (district figures).
On rain alone it gets about 41% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 41% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹550 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹1,295 a quintal, the middle of 18 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹10,000 a season after typical costs.
- ₹810 2021
- ₹1,370 2022
- ₹930 2023
- ₹2,240 2024
- ₹1,150 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 123 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.
-
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.
-
Short of organic carbon Your soil is likely short of organic carbon.
Add 4 tonnes of compost or farmyard manure per acre before sowing, and plough crop leftovers back in instead of burning them.
Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.
What local farmers put on it (share of fields):
- Urea 90%
- Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 88%
- Muriate of Potash (MOP) 61%
- Single Super Phosphate (SSP) 3%