On March 19, 2024, Soraon village in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh (UP) in northern India welcomed the state’s annual potato harvest. At the same time, others in the state are growing new black potatoes.

The harvest follows India’s bumper 2023 crop that amounted to 59.7 million tonnes, a 3 million-tonne rise from 2022. India has two main potato harvest seasons, rabi (December to March) and kharif (September to November).

Uttar Pradesh produces 35% of all potatoes in India, hence the importance of harvests in villages such as Soraon. Annually, 600,000 farmers in various districts here plant potatoes as their main crop.

To help in production, a local mechanization project known as Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) is now in place. Aptly enough, Prayagraj district is among three districts in UP with access to MIDH subsidies and loans for horticultural cultivation.

This development agenda has blossomed breeding trials by individual farmers, who now even grow a black potato variety.

Black Potato

The rise of the black potato has come as a relatively new breeding mystery in Uttar Pradesh. 

Known in Hindi as “Neelkanth,” the black potato is allegedly an old cultivar that may have been around for the past 7 years.

It is rich in antioxidants and may be medicinal but no scientific test has come to attest to these two claims.

Pebble-sized, the potato has a black skin covering a normal interior tinged a royal purple. As such, the tuber is safe to consume and has passed into a few local farmlands.

Gaya Maurya runs one such Uttar Pradesh farm on which he has been cultivating the black potato for 24 months. His success has attracted his neighbors to grow it, with the hope that it will gain commercial appeal.

The farmer, who also propagates black rice, is keen to make the black tuber popular in coming seasons.

Regarding the current potato season, India’s government promised in mid-March to offer sale and storage support in mandis (federal markets).

On March 20, wholesale potatoes in Uttar Pradesh were costing RS 956 ($11.50) per quintal, with the highest price at Rs. 1220 ($14.68). Two weeks earlier, on March 7, the price was higher, at Rs. 1,039 ($12.50) a quintal.