Abstract

Potato is cultivated in all geography and in all four seasons in Nepal, and is a high value crop. Total area of
potato production in Nepal is 203812 ha, and the production is 3487816 mt, with 17.11 mt/ha productivity, and
Bhaktapur district has the highest productivity of potato (23.4 mt/ha). During the twenty years of time period,
area has been increased by 1.88% annually, whereas production has been increased by 4.04% annually and
productivity has been increased by 2.12% annually. Import of seed potato is the very negligible. There are 21
varieties of potato which are registered/released in Nepal, among them three varieties are suitable for industrial
purposes. Productivity of potato varieties ranges from 10 to 39.4 metric tons per hectare. Altogether, there are
eight organizations having license for Pre-Basic Seed production in Nepal, where two are government and six
are private organizations. Annually, the demand of PBS in Nepal is 0.8 to 1.0 million, whereas annual PBS
production is around 0.8 million. There are two varieties of sweet potato registered, and different genotypes
has been conserved, vines are the planting materials for sweet potato. Quality deterioration of parental lines
of True Potato Seed (TPS), difficulty to maintain the seed cycle of potato, varietal development, requiring
highly technical skill to produce TPS and PBS are the major challenges in seed potato in Nepal, whereas the
cultivation in marginal land, unorganized markets, inadequate post-harvest technology are the major problems
in other tuber crops in Nepal. To make Nepal self-sufficient in potato, efforts have to be given for either
productivity increasement or area expansion. For both, the seed cycle has to be maintained for using certified
seed by the farmers to increase production of potato in Nepal.
Keywords: Post Harvest, Pre-Basic Seed, Productivity, Seed Cycle, Varietal Development