The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant Solanum tuberosum and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.

Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated by Native Americans independently in multiple locations, but later genetic studies traced a single origin, in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia. Potatoes were domesticated there approximately 7,000-10,000 years ago, from a species in the S. brevicaule complex. In the Andes region of South America, where the species is indigenous, some close relatives of the potato are cultivated.

BOTANICAL NAME: Solanum tuberosum

ORIGIN : South America

TOTAL AREA IN INDIA: 2208000 Ha

TOTAL PRODUCTION IN INDIA: 53603000MT

MAJOR PRODUCING STATES/DISTRICTS IN INDIA:

• Himachal Pradesh (Shimla, Lahaul Spita & Mandi)
• Punjab (Jalandhar, Hoshiyarpur, Ludhiana & Patiala)
• Haryana (Ambala, Kurukshetra, Hisar & Karnal)
• Uttar Pradesh (Farrukhabad, Etawah, Manpuri, Barabanki, Allahabad, Badaun, Moradabad, Agra Aligarh, Mathura, Faizabad,)
• Madhya Pradesh (Sidhi, Satana, Rewa, Sarguja, Rajgarh, Sagar, Tikamgarh
• Rajasthan (Bharatpur, Dholpur).
• Gujarat (Khera, Dissa, Banansh Katha, Jamnagar, Broda, Mehsana).
• Orissa (Cuttack, Dhenkamal, Puri & Sambalpur) and West Bengal.
• Maharashtra (Pune, Satana, Kochapur, Nasik)
• Karnataka (Belgaum & Dharwad, Hassan, Kolar)
• Andhra Pradesh (Medak, Chitture)
• Tamil Nadu (Dhindigulanna, The Nilgiris).

CULTIVATED VARIETIES

Kufri Sindhuri, Kufri Chandramukhi, Kufri, Jyoti, Kufri Muthu, Kufri Lauvkar, Kurfi Dewa, Kufri Badshah, Kufri Bahar, Kufri Lalima, Kufri Swarna, Kufri Megha, Kufri Ashoka, Kufri Jawahar and Kufri Sutlej.

STORAGE CONDITIONS:

Temperature: - 30 to 40C

Relative Humidity: - 90 to 95%

Storage Period: - 5 to 10 Months

Peak Harvesting Season:-

Himachal Pardesh: - May to November

Haryana: - Feb to March

Punjab: - Dec to Jan

Uttar Pardesh: - Dec

Tamilnadu: - All around the year

Madhya Pardesh: - Feb to March

Export of 2022-23: - 474161 MT

Major Destination: - Nepal, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia