CLIMATE BASED DELINEATION OF AREAS SUITED FOR PRODUCTION OF WARE AND PROCESSING POTATO IN INDIA

Abstract

Potato cultivation in India is largely concentrated to the autumn season in the Indo Gangetic plains which makes it vulnerable to market forces. Therefore, there is need for spatial and temporal diversification of potato cultivation and also value addition through processing. High dry matter and low reducing sugar contents are essential quality characters in the produce and these are predominantly governed by temperature regime during the growing season. This leads to some locations being more suited for producing potatoes for processing than others. Thematic maps were developed for delineating such areas in India. The study revealed that in large areas in the traditional potato growing belt in the northern Indo-Gangetic plains comprising Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal as well as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and north eastern states it is possible to produce potatoes for processing by adjusting the planting and harvest schedules to the periods with favourable temperature regime.