Potato is probably the most popular food item in the Indian diet and India is one of the largest

producers of potato. It is very popular all over the country and there are many food preparations where potato is an important ingredient. With high percentage of water content, its quality is adversely affected with the passage of time. Dehydration process reduces the water contents substantially resulting in enhanced shelf life. It is grown all over the country with Uttar Pradesh growing the maximum quantity. Potato is a very rich source of starch. It is vastly consumed as a vegetable and is also used in various forms such as starch, flour, alcohol, and dextrin and livestock fodder. Besides being used as a daily food item in various vegetable preparations, potato today increasingly finds use in the form of chips or wafers as snacks food.

. However, the large-scale cultivation of the crop began only in the beginning of the 19th century. Initially, the crop was used as a medicinal plant and grown by pharmacists, in Spain in particular.

It was later introduced to other parts of Europe by merchants and kings, who encouraged the cultivation of this efficient plant to increase local agricultural production.
The successful introduction of this new crop did not only require changes in the dietary habits of the people, but also a biological adaptation of the crop to a new climate

India ranks third contributing around 7.5% to the worlds production. Production wise India has always remained in the top ten since last twenty years. The states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar accounting for more than 75 percent of area under cultivation and about 80 percent of total production; Europe is the largest per capita consumer, followed by North America and Latin America.

Fresh potatoes are exported to Sri Lanka, UAE, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Maldives, Kuwait etc.
The overall size of the snack food market is estimated at Rs 45 to Rs 50 billion. The market is reported to be growing at 7 to 8 % annually. Potato chips is estimated to constitute nearly 85% of Indias total salty snack food market of about Rs 2,500 crore. In the Rs 19 billion branded(organized )snacks market, constituting over 40% of the market by value, Frito-Lay is estimated to command a market share of 45%, followed by Haldiram at 27% and ITC at 16%. The branded snacks market accounted for 16% by value and 12% by volume sales in 2007. According to a projection by Euromonitor International, the branded snacks market would reach a value of Rs 35 billion by 2012.

The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) was introduced to southern Asia in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, most likely by Portuguese mariners. However, as Europeans at that time were still ambivalent about the potato as a source of wholesome nutrition, its inclusion as cargo on ships from Portugal (and possibly other European countries) could have been as a botanical curiosity, not only as a potential food crop .

The early historical record of the potato in India is unclear since the term "potato" is derived from "batata," the Carib term for sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas), which preceded the potato by eighty years in its introduction to Europe (whence Asia and Africa) from its site of origin in the Andes of South America (Purseglove 1968).
The earliest known reference to "potato" in India is from an account by Edward Terry, who was chaplain to Sir Thomas Roe, British ambassador to the court of the Mughal Emperor Jahanagir from 1615 to 1619, in the northern area of contemporary India

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the four major food crops of the world. The other three crops being rice, wheat and maize. It is an important crop and it can supplement the food needs of the country in a substantial way as it produces more dry-matter food, has well balanced protein and produces more calories from unit area of land and time than other major food crops. The problem of malnutrition and under nutrition can be largely solved if potato is accepted as a major food and not merely as a vegetable in our country. It is a nutritious food containing practically all the essential dietary constituents. Like cereals, carbohydrates are the major constituents of potato. Besides, it contains essential nutrients such as proteins and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iron, and vitamins (B1, B2, B6 and C).

There is great potential of exporting potatoes from India both for seed and table purposes to our neighbouring countries of South-East Asia and to . Middle East countries. Potatoes can even be exported to some of the European countries during March-May when fresh potatoes are not available in these countries.

Between 1845 and 1851, Ireland's population fell from around 8 million to just about 5 million people. This was caused by starvation, disease and emigration to America. Two million acres of potatoes began to rot in 1845 and people began to die. A new type of fungus hit the crops, Phytophthora infestations. No one knew anything about it and so, entire crops were reduced to rotted compost in a very short time. The disease went into remission, only to come back in its same devastating nature each year thereafter until 1850. The working-class people were hit the hardest. 750,000 Irish were confirmed dead as a result of this potato blight, but it is estimated that around double that many people really perished. Overpopulation and the dependency on one crop only worsened the situation.

People couldn't afford to pay their rents anymore and were evicted by their landlords. They were forced to move to disease-infested workhouses or to emigrate to other countries. But even emigration was no solution for many of people - they were crowded into little ships, later also labeled "coffin ships", and many of them died on the way due to hunger, disease and other causes. Usually just over half of the emigrants survived the long journeys

Month Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2006-07 0 0 0 0 0

2007-08 6,136,112 3,257,550 2,919,117 3,803,751 4,823,502

2008-09 9,641,959 5,332,564 4,912,936 5,757,810 7,461,085

2009-10 7,262,245 4,015,874 3,088,822 3,823,406 4,730,832

Jan
Feb Mar Apr

4,443,428
4,612,049 5,927,448 6,351,517

3,995,402
4,481,038 5,376,418 6,543,097

5,509,753
6,194,374 6,937,908 9,064,308

4,059,981
4,473,509 5,578,917 6,156,134

May
Jun Jul Total

11,851,442
12,437,483 13,081,957 58,705,324

11,033,420
13,325,835 17,236,157 82,931,399

11,889,668
14,402,582 18,226,436 105,331,383

10,992,374
13,066,812 13,995,010 81,243,916

Source: Statistics Canada

It is estimated that 61.47% potato production are used for table purpose, 21% as seed, 0.5% processed and only about 0.03% are exported while about 17% are lost in post harvest handling, marketing and storage. India although holds 5th place in production after China, Russia, Poland and USA its share in export is very low. In world potato export markets India does not stand mainly due to high price and poor quality of produce. India exported 89033.52 MTs potato during 2006-07. India exports mainly to Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey and UAE. India also exports little quantity of processed potatoes.

Qty Year (MT) 1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 33,521.21 23,754.52 20,573.93 7,832.52 28,200.16 22,636.73 8,182.28

Value (Rs lakhs)

PUV (Rs/Ton) 1,862.17 1,606.20 891.34 518.22 1,395.31 1,160.09 328.30

5,555.20

6,761.66

4,332.38

6,616.26

4,947.88

5,124.81

4,012.33

2002-2003
2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007

24,365.13
63,140.42 61,012.52 74,534.39 89,033.52

1,182.37
2,592.95 2,838.78 3,882.55 5,769.82

4,852.71

4,106.64

4,652.78

5,209.07

6,480.50

Source: DGCIS, KOLKATA