Introduction:
Potato,
the tuber crop is the major field crop that rank first in terms of productivity
and fourth in terms of production areas. It occupies more than 80% of the
cultivated area in Europe and other areas and fulfills the food requirement by
50- 60 %.
Importance:
From
the nutritional point of view, potato is the best source of food. It contains
high amount of starch, protein (2%), fat (0.1%) and carbohydrate (19.4%). In
comparison to cereal crops, starch and protein in potato has high
digestibility. It has high biological value that is 98 in comparison to 82 in
wheat and rice respectively.
Except
Vit-A &Vit-E, it contains Vit-B6 & Vit-C in adequate amount.
Besides, it contains minerals (Fe, Ca, P, Mg, and S). According to British
Association Certification, consumption of 125-150gm of potato daily fulfills
the need of vitamins.
Besides,
consumption of potato is advantageous to blood pressure, anemia, gastritis etc.
Potato
is the native of South America and was cultivated by Incas. It was introduced
into Europe by the early Spanish explorers during sixteenth century.
Botany:
Potato
belongs to family Solanaceae. It is herbaceous annual and propagated by seeds,
tubers (stolen). The stolen are slender, arising from buds, length and diameter
varies with varieties. Eyes on the potato are buds and one or more develop into
stem and leaves. Stem are green, leaves are compound with opposite leaflets.
Height ranges from one to two feet depending upon variety. Roots are shallow
extent up to two feet. Flowers are one inch in diameter, corolla white or
purple. Fruit berry but commonly not developed. Seeds are similar to the seeds
of mustard and heterozygous.
Climatic requirements:
Potato
is cool season crop but is only moderately tolerant to frost. Temperature
during the growing season has great influence in the yield. Generally, for
germination 8Oc is ideal. At very low temperature, growth and
development is checked. Day temperature of 30-350C and night
temperature of 20-250C is ideal for proper growth and for tuberation
18-200C is ideal. High night temperature is hazardous &
sometimes if temperature is above 290C tubers are not formed.
Soil and soil
preparation:
Potato
can be grown on a wide variety of soil from lights and fairly heavy clay loam
and on muck soil. But soil with good aeration drained light textured minerals
soil reaction from pH 5-7 is ideal.
Soil
ploughing and preparation depends upon, soil type, climate, ploughing
instruments, virgin or cultivated land etc. but for effective growth and
development, physical structure of soil as well as weeds, stubbles,
sterilization of soil should be done. Soil preparation generally can be divided
into two parts. First 20-25 cm deep ploughing followed by second ploughing is generally practised. Furrow and
ridges are made as per recommended spacing.
Planting:
A. Seed rate and
spacing:
With
line to line to line spacing of 70 cm and plant to plant spacing 23 cm and with
40 gm. per seed with 4 buds, 2.5 tons seed is required for one hectare in order to
maintain ideal plant population and higher yield.
B. Planting season:
Area
|
Planting
season
|
Harvesting
season
|
Plain
(< 300m)
|
Aswin-
kartik
|
Falgun
|
Mangsir
|
Chaitra
|
Hills
(>300m)
|
Bhadra
- mangsir
|
Mangsir-
falgun
|
Poush-falgun
|
Baisakh
- jestha
|
Fertilizers
requirements:
Potato
is usually heavily fertilized since they have a high nutrient requirements and
high gross value per area which makes heavily fertilization. 30 tons of
production removes 150 kg N, 60 kg P & 250 kg K, 90 kg CaO, 30 kg MgO.
Fertilizers
application depends upon soil type, soil fertility, temperature, crop rotation,
irrigation facilities. In general, 20-30 tons FYM, 150-200 kg N, 75-100 kg P,
150-175kg K is recommended.
Time of application:
Full
dose of FYM, phosphorous, potassium and half dose of nitrogen at the time of
field preparation and remaining half dose of nitrogen at earthing time by side
line or point dressing.
Irrigation:
Pre
sowing or pre emergence irrigation than after second irrigation after 30 days
and next irrigation as per necessary.
Moisture
availability should be adequate for proper growth and development of tuber and
sprouting. Low moisture content results for tuberation, poor quality tuber and
poor germination. Production of 1 kg of potato required 300-636kg of water and
more.
Inter- cultural
practices:
A. Weed managements:
Weed
control practice is prime necessary in order to reduce loss due to weeds as
weeds compete with the potato. At early stage of growth when the is small, weed
problem severe, so, 1 hand weeding and hoeing when plant is 10-15 cm. then
small growing weeds are controlled at the time of earthing. Then after the plant can cover the weeds and
disorganized the effects of weeds. If necessary, next hand weeding can be done.
Chemically,
weeds can be control by the application of lasso @ 3 ltr/hac as pre- emergence
or post-emergence or a pre- emergence spray of a dinitro compound + diesel oil
in the water or sodiumpentochloropenate +diesel oil in water.
B. Earthing:
In
order to protect growing tubers from radiation, hot, insect, late blight etc.
Plant is covered with soil to some extent depending upon the depth of sowing or
planting. If sown to great depth, size of small ridge is enough. Earthing is
done when plant is 15-20cm tall at proper moisture level.
Harvesting:
When
the plants are turned yellowish & drying, potato is harvested. Before 7-10
days of harvesting, plants are topped at its base or stopped irrigating before
10-15 days of harvesting which helps to mature the coat of potato. Potato is harvested with the help of khurpi
by destroying the ridges side by side.
Yield:
With
the modern improved cultivation practices, 350-500 quintals of potatoes can be
produced.
Grading:
Rotted
& damaged tubers are assorted. According to the market necessity, they are
graded. Grading is done according to their size, like big, medium & small.
For grading iron mesh wire with varying size are used.
Post-harvest
management:
After
harvesting & grading, tubers are surface dried & kept in shade in heaps
for 10-15 days. If the produce is to be marketed early to take benefit of high
market price, it is advisable to harvest potato in stage because of high
perishable nature of immature tubers.
Various points for
seed plot technique of potato under plains:
In
order to obtain healthy & high yielding seeds, we have to focus on the
following points;
·
Use
of healthy & disease free seeds.
·
Timely
sowing (end of Oct.).
·
Use
of 3/4th dose of nitrogen.
·
Use
of the whole tuber seeds.
·
Use
of insecticides (Rogar).
Critical limit- 20
aphids per 100 compound leaves.
·
Hand
cutting (3rd week of January).
·
2
weeks onward of hand cutting harvesting is to be done.
·
Sorting
& tuber treatment (3% Boric acid for 30mins.).
·
Bagging
& storage.
True potato seeds
(TPS):
The
non-availability of good quality seed tuber, high seed cost, virus infiltration
in seed tubers causing degeneration of seed stocks & problem of long
distance transport of seeds from seed producing areas have led to the development
of TPS technology of crop production.
Following
considerations have to be taken for TPS technology:
·
TPS
has to be sown in nursery beds to produce seedlings. The best substrate for
nursery beds is a mixture of 1:1 FYM & soil.
·
TPS
germinates well when night temperature drop to about 20oC in the
plains & shade is provided over nursery bed areas during day time. In
plains the best sowing time is October.
·
The
seedlings raised in nursery can either be transplanted in field to produce a
ware/seed crop alternatively allowed to tuberize in the nursery beds produce
small seedling tubers which can be used for field planting next year.
·
The
method of raising the crop using small seedlings tubers produce in nursery bed
is successful in all the potato growing regions of the country.
·
The
raised seedlings for planting in 1ha, about 100gm TPS is required to be thinly
sown in 50sq. meter nursery bed areas at 10cm, into row distance seedlings will
be ready for transplanting in field in about 20-25 days of germination.
·
For
producing seedlings tubers for planting 1ha in the following crop season, 40gm
TPS is required to be sown in the nursery at 10cm X 10cm inter & intra row
spacing. The haulms may be cut on the dates recommended for the seed crop in
the area.
·
The
ware crop from seedling tubers can be raised following the standard agronomic
practices of the area, keeping in view that smaller tubers are to be planted at
closer spacing. The suitable inter & intra row spacing are 60cm X 20cm for
20-30mm, 60cm X 15cm for 20-25mm, 60cm X 10cm for 15-20mm & 60cm X 5cm for
15mm sized tubers.
·
The
field produce can be used as seed for at least for2 seasons in potatoes
seed producing areas & for 1 season in other areas.
TPS varieties (white
varieties):
·
HPS-1/13
·
TPS/C-3
·
92-PT-27
Varieties recommended
in Nepal:
1. KufriJyoti:
·
Medium
(110-120 days in hills, 100-110 days in mid hills).
·
Resistant
to late blight, size large oval shaped, skin white smooth.
·
6
weeks dormancy period.
·
Yield
20-25tons/ha
2. KufriSinduri:
·
Late
(110-130 days), size medium, round shape, skin red smooth
·
Dormancy
period 8 weeks or more.
·
Yield
25-30 tons/ha, moderately resistant to early blight.
3. Dejire;
·
Medium
sized, shape oval, smooth, red color skin.
·
Early
(70-90 days), susceptible to blight.
4. JanakDev:
·
Medium
to large size, color red.
·
Medium
(100-120 days) can be grown in terai mid hill and high hill.
·
Dormancy
period 6-8 weeks, yield 23 tons.
5. khumal seto-1:
·
Round
shape, both small and large size, skin colour white.
·
Medium
(100-120days), yield 25.1 ton/ha.
·
Dormancy
period 6-8 days, resistant to viral diseases.
6. khumal rato-2:
·
Medium
size, round shape, smooth skin, light red colour.
·
Yield
20-25 ton/ha, resistant to Y-virus.
·
Medium
variety (100-120 days).
7. Kufribahar:
Medium maturity, size large, shape round,
oval, skin white, susceptible to all major diseases.
Following are some other commercial varieties of potato recommended in Nepal
8. Kufrilalima
9. Kufrichandramukhi
10. Local red round
11. Magnum bonum
12Up-to-date
13. T-0012
14. NPI-106
15. Cardinal
Recommended varieties
in different ecological zones of Nepal:
Varieties
|
Recommended zones
|
1.
Cardinal
|
Terai,
valley and mid hills
|
2.
NPI-106
|
Mid
and high hills
|
3.
NPIT/0012
|
Mid
and high hills
|
4.
Kufribadhshah
|
Terai
|
5.
Sarkariseto
|
Eastern
hills
|
6.
Tharu local
|
Mid
and western terai
|
7.
Jumli local
|
Western
terai
|
8.
Kathmandu local
|
Kathmandu
valley
|
9.
CFM-69.1
|
Mid
and high hills
|
10.
I-1124
|
Mid
and high hills
|
Diseases:
Fungal diseases:
- 1. Late blight:
C.O. Phytopthora infestans
Symptoms:
·
Appearance
of water soaked areas which enlarges rapidly and then turn brown or black as
the leaf dies.
·
White
downy mildew sometimes on the lower side of the leaves.
·
The
late blight produces a dry rot.
Control:
·
Spray
Bordeaux mixture at interval of 6-10 days.
·
Spray
Diathene M-45
·
Use
resistant varieties.
- 2. Early blight:
C.O.Altrnaria solani
Symptoms:
Initially brown spots
and increase in size with concentric rings.
Control:
Spray Diathane M-45
(0.2%)
- 3 Stem canker:
C.O. Cerospora solani-tuberosis
Symptoms:
Similar to early
blight but white appearance in the spot.
Control:
Spray Diathane M-45
(0.2%)
- 4 Dry rot:
C.O. Fusarium caerulium
Symptoms:
Fungal growth in
eyes, lenticels and wounds.
Control:
Prevent the injury
and use of free seeds.
Bacterial diseases:
1 1) C.O. Pseudomonas solanacearum
Symptoms:
·
Brown
ring is observed in the stem.
·
Black
appearance of the potato eye.
Control:
Crop
rotation in 2-3 years and proper irrigation.\
2 2) Soft rot:
C.O. Erwinia cartovora
Symptoms:
Bacteria enter into
the tubers through the lenticels.
Control:
·
Proper
irrigation.
·
Storage
after treatment of drugs with exposure to air for an hour.
3 3) Common scab:
C.O. Streptomyces scabies
Symptoms:
Corky spots vary in
size and number from a few small dots to large lesions.
Control:
Disinfect tubers with
Agallol-6 or Mercuric fungicides.
Viral diseases:
- Leaf roll: leaf rolls and
thickened.
II. Mild mosaic: light coloration in
leaf vein and mixed with dark green.
III.
Severe mosaic: stunted growth,
uneven appearance of stem and scarp appearance on the leaf.
Insects/pests:
1) Cut worms: spray Dursban-20 EC or apply phorate in soil.
2) Caterpillar: spray Thiodan or BHC (10%)
c 3) Aphid: spray rogar or malathion.
4) Jassids: Spray metasystox (0.8%).
Physiological
Disorders:
a 1) Internal brown spots:
It is characterized
by irregular, dry brown spots scattered through the flesh of tuber due to
irregular irrigation.
2) Black heart:
When potato are
stored high temperature of 35-40oC they develop black heart in which
inner tissues break down and become black which may be due to lack of oxygen,
accumulation of CO2 and high temperature.
c 3) Hollow heart:
It is characterized
by irregular cavity in the center of tuber. Surrounding the cavity, there is no
decay or discoloration. It is produced in large sized tuber variety which can
be overcome by closure spacing and avoiding excessive use of fertilizers.
4) Chilling injury:
It is due to storage
of tubers for long time at temperature of about 00C. This result in discolor
blotches in the flesh of tubers which vary from light reddish brown to dark
brown.