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| Harvesting potato in Bardhaman district of West Bengal |
The humble, and now less popular among the weight conscious, potato's history in India is not really a very old one. But in the few centuries that it has made its home in India, it has already become almost the staple Indian vegetable.
Today almost all the potato plant grown in India is for domestic consumption. But there is another category - the process grade potato, which is used to make chips and french fries. Just 3% of India's current production of potato, this crop is much in demand by corporations who make potato snacks.
Lots of research,planning and innovation goes into this. This contraption here, the Bengal Potato Planter, is a locally produced contraption that does away with the need to harvest the crop manually. Traditionally the crop was harvested by hand, but this is too slow a process for commercial production, apparently. And you thought there wasn't much to the potato besides addictive snacking and feeling guilty!
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