Sweet Potato

Water

Rain is enough in a normal year. Keep one irrigation ready for a dry year.

Needs about 320 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 160 mm it can use in a normal year (70 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 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):

• Oct 31 °C / 23 °C
• Nov 28 °C / 18 °C
• Dec 25 °C / 14 °C
• Jan 24 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 27 °C / 14 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Sweet Potato: 9 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: sulphur.

• The pH here suits it.
• Most fields here are short of zinc.

Likes pH 5.0–7.0.

Money

Yield: about 16 quintals an acre here in its other seasons (district figures).

Mandi price at last season's harvest (February–March 2026): about ₹2,388 a quintal across India's mandis.

Prices are usually best in September.

Typical costs are about ₹55,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.