Economics of potato storage in Northern India

Potato production has increased rapidly in India over the past four decades, but continued growth is constrained by post-harvest and marketing imperfections. Large and variable intra-seasonal price movements indicate an inadequate potato storage system and poor coordination between potato producers, marketing agents, and users. This paper provides an economic assessment of three types of potato storage technology: Farmers traditional methods, modern refrigerator cold stores, and a new farm storage technology known as evaporative cool stores (ECS). While cold stores remain the only viable alternative for long-term (5 to 8 months) storage of table and seed potatoes, ECS can significantly reduce losses in farm stores for shorter-term storage of table potatoes. However, higher capital costs of ECS compared to farmers' traditional methods may limit its adoption prospects among Indian potato farmers.