Potato News from India

Red Candy, a new potato variety launched by Technico Agri Sciences Ltd, combines early bulking with better storability. This addresses the key concerns of potato growers in e.g. in Bihar and Northern parts of West Bengal.

India based seed potato company Utkal Tubers is focused on the development of high yielding disease resistant varieties.

Technico Agricultural Sciences Limited (TASL), India has been carrying out extensive varietal evaluation trials under its Varietal Advancement program across the potato producing states in the country.

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, have developed a computational model for automated disease detection in potato crops using photographs of its leaves.

Recently Mahindra HZPC brought 30 more potato varieties from HZPC to India. They include HZPC's Perupas, an assortment of colourful varieties, rich in antioxidants for healthy lifestyle. The recently introduced varieties are expected to give rise to new and differentiated supply chains, especially in the modern retail space.

The brand’s latest potato biscuits will be available first in south India, West Bengal and markets in north-eastern states. These will be made available through ITCstore.in, general trade outlets and modern trade stores.

Union Additional Secretary Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Vivek Agarwal said Jammu and Kashmir has the potential to produce high quality virus-free potato seeds and become its largest producer.

Technico Agri Sciences Limited (a 100% subsidiary of ITC Ltd.) is an Agri-Biotech Company involved in the business of producing and selling 'Early Generation' high vigor seed potatoes, with its award winning TECHNITUBER® Seed Technology.

With retail potato prices rising sharply over April and May, the government of India has decided to permit the import of Potatoes from Bhutan without any license up to June 30, 2022.

In line with the Global Sustainability Strategy and Commitments, McCain released its Global Sustainability Report with a focus on India, for the first time, to track progress across its sustainability pillars for the year 2020.

Dilip from Odisha learnt an innovative method to grow potatoes using agro-waste, to put an end to stubble burning.

HyFun, which produces and exports frozen potato products, will be investing Rs 300 crores (~40.927.410 USD) for expansion and will also foray into the domestic retail segment.

Bharat Insecticides Ltd. (BIL), a group company of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) specializing in crop protection products announced that it has changed its name to ‘Bharat Certis AgriScience Ltd.’ with effect from 1st April 2021.

Cold storages full at 97% capacity; bumper crop drags prices of the spud down.

Potato cultivators in West Bengal were afraid they will face severe losses as the price of good quality seeds have skyrocketed even as the minimum support price (MSP) fixed has remained relatively low.

Retail prices of potatoes have risen marginally, given that farmers have been scrambling to stock up on the harvest, which has had a bumper production this year. This very bounty and the stockpiling is expected to keep potato prices stable over the next season.

Predicting a bumper harvest of potato this season, the West Bengal Cabinet on Monday decided to allow cold storage owners to purchase at least 10 lakh (1 Million) metric tons of tuber from farmers at a fixed price, so that they do not have to suffer losses, a senior official said.

Central Potato Research Institute, (CPRI) Ooty in Tamil Nadu has developed two disease resistant potatoes - Kufri Sahyadri and Kufri Karan - hybrid varieties which at present showing promising results in improving yield by 25 per cent to 30 per cent at laboratory level.