India's potato output may rise to 8 per cent in 2009-10

The scare of light blight attack in Karnataka not withstanding, India’s potato output could rise by six per cent to eight per cent in 2009-2010, according to traders and analysts. In 2008-09, the output was placed at 260 lakh tonnes, down from the high of 305 lakh tonnes in 2007-08.

"With potato fetching a better price this year compared to the previous years a number of farmers who had either left their land barren or gone for sowing of other crop will come back, "said Mr Sachid Madan, director at Technico Agri Sciences, a subsidiary of the cigarette to hotel major ITC Limited.

Increased production would mean that prices which have already risen year on year by over 100 per cent should begin to moderate.

Mr Madan for one is confident that prices could possibly touch as low as Rs 5 per kg by the end of the current month even as arrivals from key producers like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh begin to firm up. Potato prices were ruling as recently as October/November at Rs 14-15 per kg in the wholesale markets.

Part of the optimism of a higher crop stems from the fact that sowing operations is still on in key producing states like West Bengal and Bihar besides Karnataka. Potato acreage in India stood at 16 lakh hectares in 2008-09, which is also expected to rise by another five to six per cent.

However despite the optimism, traders like Mr Sukhjit Singh Bhatti, president of the Jalandhar based Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers have a word of caution. “We could get a bumper crop which will largely depend on the weather conditions in December and January,” he adds.