Sweet Potato

Water

Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 350 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 80 mm it can use in a normal year (50 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 29 °C / 18 °C
• Dec 26 °C / 13 °C
• Jan 25 °C / 11 °C
• Feb 28 °C / 13 °C

Soil

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

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

Likes pH 5.0–7.0.

Money

Yield: about 29 quintals an acre here (district figures).

On rain alone it gets about 79% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 79% of this yield.

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.