Sweet Potato

Water

Rain falls about 1 irrigation (5 cm) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 260 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 70 mm it can use in a normal year (30 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 150 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 18–28 °C on average, and survives 10–38 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

• Nov 24 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 21 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 26 °C / 14 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Nights in January can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.

Soil

Soil for Sweet Potato: 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: sulphur, zinc, iron and 3 more.

• The pH here suits it.
• Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
• Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.

Likes pH 5.0–7.0.

Money

Yield: about 38 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

On rain alone it gets about 84% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 84% of this yield.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹2,450 a quintal across India's mandis.

Prices are usually best in September.

Typical costs are about ₹57,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.