Crop Guide

Potato Farming in Uttar Pradesh - Complete Guide 2026

Potato farming in Uttar Pradesh. Best varieties for Agra, Kanpur region, planting time, fertilizers, storage, and mandi selling guide.

📅 Updated 1 October 2026 ✍️ Farmer.in Editorial Team ⏱️ 10 min read

In Uttar Pradesh, plant the main potato crop from about 15 October to the first week of November, once the heat of early October has broken. The National Horticulture Board puts the main crop in the north Indian plains at the first week of October onwards, but CPRI-based guidance for the Indo-Gangetic plains gives the second half of October to the first week of November as the best window; use the earlier dates only for short-duration varieties such as Kufri Pukhraj and only if the weather has turned cool. Planting too early risks heat stress on emerging plants, and planting late squeezes tuber bulking against the warm days of February.

The leading varieties for UP, from the National Horticulture Board list and CPRI, are Kufri Bahar (100 to 110 days) and Kufri Badshah for the main table crop, Kufri Pukhraj (70 to 90 days) for early harvest, and Kufri Anand and Kufri Chipsona-1 where processing or frost tolerance matters. This season has an unusual twist: after prices fell sharply in 2026, the UP government announced three potato schemes in August 2026, including a seed discount of up to ₹1,000 per quintal that applies right now at planting. Details are below.

Choosing a variety for UP

These are the National Horticulture Board's descriptions of CPRI varieties released for the plains of UP and nearby states. The average yields are the board's listed averages; farmers usually get less, and the early varieties give lower total yield than the 100-day types.

Variety	Maturity	Listed average yield	What it is good for
Kufri Pukhraj	70 to 90 days	about 40 t/ha	Early crop; yellow flesh; resistant to early blight and moderately resistant to late blight; table use
Kufri Ashoka	70 to 80 days	about 40 t/ha	Very early, but susceptible to late blight
Kufri Chandramukhi	80 to 90 days	about 25 t/ha	Early, smooth skin; chips and flakes
Kufri Jyoti	–	–	Maturity and yield for the plains are not given in the NHB listing. Grown in UP, Bihar, Punjab; moderately resistant to early and late blight; slow seed degeneration; table and processing use
Kufri Bahar	100 to 110 days	about 45 t/ha	UP, Haryana, HP; white table potato; slow degeneration
Kufri Badshah	100 to 110 days	about 50 t/ha	Table use; moderately resistant to early and late blight; resistant to virus X; tubers turn purple if exposed to light
Kufri Sutlej	90 to 100 days	about 40 t/ha	Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, UP and MP; moderately resistant to late blight
Kufri Lalima	100 to 110 days	about 40 t/ha	Red skin, for UP and Bihar; resistant to virus Y; not suitable for processing
Kufri Anand	100 to 110 days	35 to 40 t/ha	Plains of UP and Bihar; resistant to late blight; frost tolerant; French fries
Kufri Chipsona-1 and -2	90 to 110 days	40 and 35 t/ha	Bihar and UP; resistant to late blight; frost tolerant; chips and fries (processing contract needed)

Do not plant a processing variety (Chipsona, Anand, Frysona) without a buyer or contract, because processors specify dry-matter and sugar levels. For table potato from Agra, Kanpur, Farrukhabad or Hathras, Bahar, Badshah and Pukhraj remain the dependable choices, with a second variety to spread the harvest and blight risk.

Seed: size, quality and the new discount

Seed tuber: well-sprouted, disease-free tubers of 30 to 40 g; larger tubers can be cut longitudinally through the crown eye so each piece weighs 30 to 40 g and has eyes. Disinfect the knife with potassium permanganate between tubers, and treat cut seed with a fungicide before planting (NHB). Cut seed rots in wet soil; plant it in moist, not wet, soil.
Seed rate: NHB gives 1.5 to 1.8 tonnes per hectare for round varieties and 2.0 to 2.5 tonnes for oval ones, and calls seed the costliest input. The quantity really depends on tuber size and spacing, so work it out for your field: seed (kg/ha) = plants per hectare × average tuber weight (g) ÷ 1,000. At 60 × 20 cm there are about 83,000 plants per hectare, so 30 g seed tubers need about 2.5 t/ha and 40 g tubers about 3.3 t/ha (10 to 13 quintals per acre). Ask your seed supplier to confirm the tuber count per quintal before you buy.
Where seed comes from: buy certified seed from the UP Horticulture Department or an accredited seed producer, not table potatoes saved from a previous crop; degenerated seed carries virus and yields less every year.
Seed discount (new for 2026-27): the UP government announced on 18 August 2026 a discount of up to ₹1,000 per quintal on department-certified potato seed, with a ₹5 crore provision (the budget covers a limited number of farmers, reported as over 15,000). Ask the district horticulture officer how to claim it before you buy seed.

Field preparation, spacing and fertiliser

Land: plough to 24 to 25 cm, expose the soil to the sun, and mix well-decomposed FYM at 25 to 30 t/ha in the last ploughing (NHB). Avoid saline and alkaline soils.
Planting: ridges 50 to 60 cm apart, tubers 15 to 20 cm apart on the ridge, 5 to 7 cm deep, then covered with soil. A CPRI four-row automatic planter does 4 to 5 hectares a day.

For alluvial soils of the Indo-Gangetic plains, NHB gives 180 to 240 kg N, 60 to 90 kg P₂O₅ and 85 to 130 kg K₂O per hectare, with two-thirds of the nitrogen and all the phosphorus and potash at planting, placed in a band about 5 cm from the tubers, and the rest of the nitrogen at earthing up. A Soil Health Card test will tell you where in this range to be. A worked example for mid-range doses (about 200:75:100 per hectare), per acre:

Nutrient (per acre)	Total	At planting	At earthing up
Nitrogen	about 81 kg	54 kg: 65 kg DAP (12 kg N) + about 92 kg urea (42 kg N)	27 kg: about 59 kg urea
Phosphorus (P₂O₅)	about 30 kg	65 kg DAP	none
Potash (K₂O)	about 40 kg	about 67 kg muriate of potash	none

Always check current fertiliser availability and prices; see fertilizers. Do not leave out the potash: NHB's range for the plains includes 85 to 130 kg K₂O per hectare.

Irrigation, earthing up and weeds

Irrigation: the first irrigation should be light and given 5 to 7 days after planting; after that irrigate at 7 to 15 day intervals depending on weather and soil, because potato has a shallow, sparse root system. Sprinkler irrigation on frosty nights reduces frost damage; drip saves almost 50% of water and allows fertigation (see drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation).
Earthing up: two or three earthing-up passes 15 to 20 days apart, the first when plants are 15 to 25 cm tall. The ridge should be high enough to cover every tuber; exposed tubers turn green and are more exposed to blight spores.
Weeds: the crop closes its canopy about four weeks after planting, so weeds must be removed by then. NHB lists pendimethalin at 0.5 kg active ingredient per hectare as a pre-emergence option for annual grasses and broadleaf weeds; read the label for the amount per acre.

Late blight: the disease that decides the crop

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) can destroy a UP crop in a week of cool, humid, foggy weather, typically in December and January. NHB gives the conditions as about 10 to 20°C with humidity above 80%, and the practices that work are:

Use clean seed and make high ridges so daughter tubers stay covered.
When blight-favourable weather arrives, stop irrigating (or give only a light irrigation).
Spray a protective contact fungicide, mancozeb at 0.2%, before symptoms appear, and repeat at 8 to 10 day intervals if the weather stays favourable. In a severe attack NHB suggests one or two sprays of metalaxyl at 0.25%, followed by mancozeb 15 days later. Rotate fungicide groups, follow the label dose, and check your KVK's or CPRI's current blight advisory.
If blight has hit 75% of the foliage, cut the haulms, remove them and bury them deep.

💡 Tip: Choose at least one blight-tolerant variety (Kufri Anand or Chipsona-1 are listed as resistant) if you cannot reach a sprayer quickly. In a fog week, spraying one day late costs more than the fungicide.

Harvest, curing and storage

The main crop is ready 75 to 120 days after planting, when most leaves have turned yellow-brown. Cut the tops near the ground, wait 8 to 10 days for the skin to set, then dig; heap the potatoes in shade for 10 to 15 days to cure the skin, and never leave them in direct sun (greening). Sort out damaged and rotten tubers before bagging or sending to a cold store.

Prices, the UP schemes and what an acre earns

Potato prices fell hard in 2026 and farmers who stored their crop faced heavy cold-storage charges. On 18 August 2026 the UP government announced three measures for the 2026-27 year:

Scheme	What it gives	Limits
Price Stability Fund (Bhamashah Bhav Sthirta Kosh)	If the market price falls below cost, pays the lower of 25% of the fixed production cost or the gap between cost and sale price. ₹1,000 crore fund	Up to 2 hectares per farmer, counted at up to 240 quintals per hectare; production cost is fixed by a state committee headed by the Agricultural Production Commissioner
Cold-storage assistance	₹100 per quintal towards private cold-storage rent	Maximum ₹20,000 per farmer; a buyer-seller or storage document is needed; apply on the online portal with storage receipts, Aadhaar, bank passbook and land record
Seed discount	Up to ₹1,000 per quintal on department-certified seed	₹5 crore provision; ask the horticulture office

Uptake of the cold-storage assistance has been slow: in Kanpur Dehat only 13 of about 1,000 farmers who had stored potatoes had registered by 10 September. If you store potatoes next season, register early, keep the storage receipt, and ask your district horticulture officer for the current portal instructions. Reports give the operating periods as 1 January to 15 April and 1 July to 31 October. Confirm every figure with the department, because these schemes were announced in August and rules may change.

For a feel of the market: the all-India modal potato price on this site's mandi page (Agmarknet data) was about ₹1,300 per quintal in late September 2026, but the price you get in February to March 2027 will be set by the new crop and by how much old stock is still in cold storage. Gross income per acre at a yield of 100 quintals (10 tonnes) is ₹80,000 at ₹800/q, ₹1,20,000 at ₹1,200/q and ₹1,60,000 at ₹1,600/q. Break-even price = your total cost per acre ÷ quintals harvested: for example, a ₹90,000 per-acre cost with 100 quintals is ₹900 per quintal. Work this out with your own seed, fertiliser, labour and storage costs before deciding the area. Check live potato mandi prices, check whether potato is notified for PMFBY in your district and the enrolment date and the Kisan Credit Card for input finance.

Sources

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

When should potato be planted in Uttar Pradesh? +

The main crop is planted from about 15 October to the first week of November, once the heat of early October breaks. Short-duration early varieties like Kufri Pukhraj can be planted from the end of September to mid-October. Very late planting squeezes the bulking period against the warmer days of February.

Which potato varieties are best for UP? +

Kufri Bahar and Kufri Badshah for main-crop table potato, Kufri Pukhraj for early harvest, Kufri Lalima for red-skinned potato, and Kufri Anand or Chipsona-1 for frost tolerance and processing. Check that the variety suits your market before buying seed.

How much fertiliser does potato need per hectare in UP? +

NHB recommends 180 to 240 kg N, 60 to 90 kg P2O5 and 85 to 130 kg K2O per hectare in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Give two-thirds of the nitrogen and all the phosphorus and potash at planting and the rest of the nitrogen at earthing up.

How do I control late blight in potato? +

Use clean seed, keep ridges high, stop irrigation when cool humid weather arrives, spray mancozeb at 0.2% before symptoms and repeat every 8 to 10 days, and use a systemic fungicide only for severe attacks. Cut and bury haulms if 75% of the foliage is infected.

What help is available to UP potato farmers in 2026-27? +

Three schemes announced in August 2026: a price stability fund (lower of 25% of cost or the shortfall, up to 2 ha), cold-storage assistance of ₹100 per quintal capped at ₹20,000 per farmer, and a seed discount of up to ₹1,000 per quintal on department-certified seed. Confirm rules with the horticulture office.

How much potato seed per acre? +

NHB gives 1.5 to 2.5 tonnes per hectare (6 to 10 quintals per acre), but the real figure depends on tuber size and spacing: at 60 x 20 cm there are about 83,000 plants per hectare, so 30 to 40 g tubers need about 2.5 to 3.3 tonnes per hectare (10 to 13 quintals per acre). Use tubers or cut pieces of 30 to 40 g.

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