Potato News from Himachal Pradesh

Agriculture Ministry approves 4 new ICAR-CPRI potato varieties—Kufri Ratan, Kufri Tejas, Kufri Chipbharat-1 & 2—for nationwide cultivation, boosting yields, processing quality & farmer returns, strengthening India’s potato sector.

CPRI launched Kufri Chipbharat-1, a new potato variety for processing, marking a significant advancement in India's agricultural sector. The release, attended by key officials, supports India's position as the second-largest global potato producer.

This high-yielding, biofortified variety is suitable for cultivation across the Northern, Central, and Eastern Plains of India, offering enhanced nutritional benefits and versatile culinary applications.

A groundbreaking wind-operated aerial insect trap designed to revolutionize pest management in agriculture has been developed by a team of scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Potato Research Institute (ICAR-CPRI) in Shimla.

After mustard, India will undertake trials of two other genetically modified (GM) food crops, bananas and potatoes, perhaps ushering in a new era of biotech-enhanced farming.

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, have developed a computational model for automated disease detection in potato crops using photographs of its leaves.

In an effort to limit the spread of the Potato Cyst Nematode, the government of India has prohibited the movement of seed potatoes from Himachal, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Jammu Kashmir to other states

India's potato production has seen a phenomenal increase since the 1950s, mainly due to strong demand from the processing industry and remunerative returns.