The Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC) stated that the production of potatoes went up to 2.05 million tons in 2007/08 from 0.74 million tons in 1993/94.
Likewise, potato crop acreage and productivity also rose by 75 percent and 57 percent over the period.
Last year, per capita availability of potatoes was recorded at 147 kg, 73 kg and 65 kg in the mountain, hill and tarai districts respectively.
According to MoAC, the per capita availability of potatoes was 61kg, which is almost double the world average.
In the same year, per capita potato availability was 17 kg, 24 kg and 11 kg in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively.
Dr Hari Dahal, spokesperson of MoAC, said Jhapa, Bara, Kavre, Saptari, Morang, Makawanpur, Rupandehi, Panchthar, Ilam and Sunsari are the 10 leading potato producing districts, accounting for more than 40 percent of the total output across the country.
According to records at Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Development Board, potatoes account for 21 percent of total vegetable arrivals at the Kalimati vegetable wholesale market.
Increasing production of potatoes in the country is gradually replacing the imports from India, Bhutan and China.
“About 15 percent of the total consumption of potatoes is met by imports from those three countries while Nepal exports 5 to 7 percent of the total domestic production. This shows that we are able to meet about 90 percent of our total demand for potatoes,” said Dahal.
To boost the production of potatoes across the world, the United Nations had marked 2008 as International Year of Potatoes.
Despite the fact that potato is a key vegetable item, its production has not soared as much as expected, thanks to lack of access to improved seed by farmers and shortage of cold storage.
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