CIP Develops a Pilot-Project of Cultivating Potato in Dryland Areas of India

The International Potato Center developed a Pilot-Project to cultivate potatoes in the arid landscape of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.

The arid landscape, the water table, and the warm days that fed into cool evenings were reminiscent of Gujarat-India’s most productive potato growing state, except that at Jodhpur and Jaisalmer district runs along the Pakistan border no potatoes were grown.

The land was fertile and free of soil borne diseases, favorable conditions for potato cultivation. Despite the obvious advantages potato farming was non-existent on this stretch of land. Charged by the CGIAR consortium with finding new areas of India to pilot potato program’s as part of an International Potato Center’s (CIP) dryland outreach, Dr. Mohinder Kadian, a LowLand potato scientist, and Sushma Arya, a CIP agronomist, asked themselves, “why not take our experience of Gujarat and apply it in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer?”

The original plan was to start with five farmers and work through a partner because the remote location made it hard to access. “The summer is harsh and the soil sandy and difficult to travel on,” says Sushma. “Once you get down to the field you are completely desiccated because it is so warm and dry.” Local enthusiasm for the project and the potential for real impact, however, made the CIP team decide to not only take the lead on the project but to increase its scope to include 16 farmers in Jodhpur and another 14 in a similar dryland area in Jaisalmer.

Preliminary evaluation trials showed good yields with solid performance by some of CIP clones adapted for heat tolerance and water scarcity. “We began looking at the clones and varieties used in Gujarat and finally decided to start using established varieties,” says Sushma. The yields in the project’s first harvest were far more than anyone had imagined. Whereas the average across India was 23 tons of potatoes per hectare with West Bengal topping in at 29 tons per hectare, one of the first-time potato farmers in Jaisalmer tipped the scales with an encouraging 32 tons of potato per hectare.

You can read the complete article on cipotato.org.