Seven decades of potato research in India: Achievements and future thrusts

Abstract

Potato is a staple item that meets over a billion people's energy and nutritional needs globally but is frequently overlooked in terms of its contribution to the global food system. It serves a variety of purposes: as a staple meal, a cash crop, animal feed, and a source of starch for a various industrial applications. The crop is well-suited to areas with limited land and abundant labour, which define much of the situation available in developing world. Additionally, potatoes are a highyielding crop that produces more food per unit area and time than wheat, rice, or maize. Besides, potato production and post-harvest operations provide significant employment and income opportunities in rural regions, particularly in countries, like India. The FAO has advised that every effort be made to maximize the agricultural potential of this crop in the Asian region. In recent years, significant progress has already been made in terms of potato production levels in nations such as China (H” 99 MMT) and India (H” 53 MMT). The potato sector appears to have excellent prospects for further expansion. However, the issues that must be addressed are substantial. Since its inception seven decades ago, the ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute in Shimla has been internationally recognised for developing suitable varieties and technologies that virtually transformed the temperate potato crop into a sub-tropical one, enabling its spread from cooler hill regions to the vast Indo-Gangetic plains as a rabi crop. It sparked a revolution in potato production, resulting in the extremely rapid expansion of the area, production, and productivity. However, when the effects of global warming became apparent in the 1990s, it became clear that additional modifications of potato from subtropical to further higher temperate growing conditions would be required in near future to sustain its production in the plains. While the targets to produce 125 million tonnes of potatoes in India by 2050 may appear ambitious at first glance, a review of the variables and facts driving future potato demand validates this lofty goal. Nonetheless, this objective is fraught with obstacles that must be overcome by planned potato research and development solutions. This review discusses potato research and development accomplishments over the last seven decades in terms of varietal development, climate change adaptation, biosecurity and disease management, increased availability of high-quality seed, and post-harvest management, besides emphasizing the country's vision for the potato crop.

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