Why India's potato production misses out on its true potential despite being a global giant

Time of India

5 days ago

My father wasn't fond of eating meat but didn't like most vegetables either. Essentially, he felt potatoes were the perfect food and would have been happy eating them all the time. India is now the world's second largest producer of potatoes, most of it consumed internally. Clearly, many of us feel that way too.
This is remarkable for a crop whose widespread cultivation in India barely goes back two centuries. Our per capita consumption is still relatively low. Belarus tops that list, at a whopping 155 kg per person each year, with Ukraine, Kyrg yzstan and Kazakhstan all crossing 100 kg. India's per capita consumption is just 25 kg per head.
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Indianpotato.com, a clearinghouse for desi aloo information, suggests this is partly due to the influence of Jainism, which abjures all root vegetables. Another, slightly more plausible reason, is that we eat potatoes as a vegetable in itself, in curries, stir-fries or stuffed in breads. The high consumption countries are eating it as a starchy staple, rather than grains, and also distilling it into vodka.
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A third reason for low per capita consumption might be that potatoes aren't really suited for growing in India. They originated in the high, cool valleys of the Andes, where more than 3,000 varieties can still be found, with many variations of shape and colour. 'These high-altitude potatoes are smaller, but they keep better, are more nutritious and have much more flavour,' writes Edward Behr in 50 Foods: A Guide to Deliciousness. The top consuming countries are all temperate ones, while Nepal, where per capita consumption is over 90 kg, offers cool climates and high altitudes.
India has managed its massive potato production by breeding varieties that can handle warmer climates, but at the cost of flavour — which isn't seen as important because taste will come from the spices and other ingredients with which they are cooked. We also grow them as a winter crop in northern states and then keep them in cold storages for the rest of the year to supply across the country. Prolonged storage affects taste and cooking quality, but again, the cooking methods cover this up.
This explains why potatoes in India are usually sold as standard aloo , not specific varieties. Behr writes about varieties like 'the creamy, flavourful French La Ratte, a fingerling, meaning it's small, long, knobby, tender, and waxy' or the large russet potatoes which 'make a nutty puree with perceptible grains of starch'. The nearest you get to that here is in hilly areas where people have access to fresh potatoes and will tell you that those from certain areas are particularly esteemed.
The growth of potato processors has increased our distance from actual tubers. By handling storage, peeling and cutting for products like French fries, so that chefs need to only open bags and do final frying, these companies remove any pressure to produce good potato dishes. They are so skilled at standardisation that you won't get bad potato dishes from them — but you won't get great ones and, the real sadness, you forget how good potatoes can be.
I was reminded of this recently in Sublime, a Goa restaurant where chef Chris Aga still makes confit potatoes. The tubers are sliced thin, close packed in a tin, cooked with plenty of butter and then pressed to compact them further. Then they are unmoulded, sliced and fried again, giving you a layered product that manages to be both crisp and creamy at the same time.
Sublime also makes wonderful mashed potatoes, carefully boiled and mashed with plenty of butter. Mashed potatoes seem to have vanished from restaurants because most processors don't market a version in India and it's easier just to use their pre-processed fries or wedges. Potato lovers, like my father, will always be happy in India, but the plain perfection of dishes made with good potatoes reminds us of what we are still missing out.