Can new fortified potato variety help with India’s hidden hunger problem?

Why in the News

The Centre is promoting Kufri Jamunia, a new purple potato, as an answer to hidden hunger, but the evidence so far shows only that it carries more nutrients, not that it delivers them to people. With yield, disease, cooking losses and uptake still uncertain, calling it a proven solution is premature.

What is Kufri Jamunia, and why is it being promoted?

1. What it is: A purple-fleshed potato from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Potato Research Institute (ICAR-CPRI) that carries more anthocyanins (antioxidants), vitamin C and micronutrients, like a vitamin tablet grown as a vegetable.
2. The problem it targets: Hidden hunger is when people eat enough calories but still miss the nutrients they need.
3. How it was bred: In 2015 CPRI crossed a line high in vitamin C with one carrying purple skin and flesh. The resulting line builds up nutrients naturally as it grows.
4. How it was released: After multi-location trials, the government notified it in November 2024.
5. The takeaway: It tests whether a potato bred for nutrition can do what fortified rice and salt already do.

How much more nutrition does it carry?

1. Press Information Bureau (PIB) figures: Per 100 g of flesh, it carries far more of three nutrients than a regular potato:
   • vitamin C: about 42.75 mg against 23.15 mg;
   • zinc: 2.28 mg against 0.28 mg;
   • iron: 3.22 mg against 0.57 mg.
2. Carotenoids vary by place: Carotenoids ranged from 15.6 micrograms in Kanpur to 298.4 micrograms in Raipur across trial sites.
3. Uneven gains: It has slightly less zinc than Kufri Neelkanth and slightly less iron than Kufri Manik, other coloured CPRI varieties.
4. Benefits unproven: Anthocyanins also occur in jamun and blueberries, but whether this potato delivers their benefits is unknown.
5. Cooking losses: A 2016 *Food Chemistry* study found steaming and microwaving kept more nutrients in purple potatoes than stir-frying. No such study exists for Kufri Jamunia.

Can it reach people the way fortified rice and salt do?

1. Eating patterns: Fortification usually targets rice and iodised salt, eaten all year. Potatoes are eaten less consistently, and absorbed nutrients depend on cooking.
2. Small taste test: In a CPRI assessment of 64 people, 95% rated it “good to excellent”, a sample too small to generalise.
3. Colour and appeal: Purple flesh could put off buyers, since acceptance depends on appearance, awareness, taste and local preferences.

Will farmers grow it?

1. Cultivation decides half: Delivering nutrients is half of a biofortification (nutrient-bred crop) programme, and cultivation is the other half.
2. Yield falls off the station: It averaged 49.01 tonnes per hectare at the Modipuram research station, but only 31.96 tonnes across multi-location trials.
3. Lower marketable yield: Trials gave 29.19 tonnes of marketable potatoes per hectare, against 33.48 tonnes for Kufri Neelkanth.
4. Price premium needed: With equal costs, farmers would need a 15% higher price for the same gross revenue.
5. Late blight: This disease is caused by the water mould *Phytophthora infestans*. The potato moderately resists it in the laboratory but is “susceptible” in the field, so CPRI advises fungicide.

Challenges

1. Seed costs: Seed already makes up 40-50% of production costs for regular potatoes, so new seed raises farmers’ outlay.
2. Absorption unknown: No study yet shows how much iron and zinc the body absorbs from this potato.
3. Outside public food schemes: The Public Distribution System (PDS) basket centres on rice and wheat, so the potato has no ready channel to poor households.

Way Forward

1. Absorption trials: ICAR and nutrition researchers should measure iron and zinc absorbed from cooked Kufri Jamunia.
2. Cooking guidance: CPRI should test nutrient retention under common Indian cooking and publish advice.
3. Seed and market support: States should supply affordable certified seed and link growers to premium buyers.

Conclusion

Kufri Jamunia shows that a potato can be bred to carry more micronutrients, not yet that it can reduce hidden hunger. Absorption tests and farmer uptake will decide whether it becomes a nutrition tool or stays a research success.

Key numbers

1. Plant traits: 10-12 tubers per plant, maturing in about 90 days.
2. Anthocyanins (PIB): 42.05 mg per 100 g.
3. Carotenoids (PIB): 161 micrograms per 100 g.
4. Rival yields across trials: Kufri Manik 31.52 and Kufri Neelkanth 36.61 tonnes per hectare.

Back2Basics: Biofortification

1. What it is: Biofortification raises a crop’s nutrient content as it grows, through breeding or genetic tools. Ordinary fortification adds nutrients during processing instead.
2. Examples: Iron-rich wheat, zinc-rich rice and beta-carotene-rich maize. Eg. Golden Rice, enriched with vitamin A.

Matching Previous Year Question

“No direct PYQ traced in the provided files. Thematic PYQ: [2025] Consider the following statements regarding turmeric during the year 2022–23: 1. India is the largest producer and exporter of turmeric in the world. 2. More than 30 varieties of turmeric are grown in India. 3. Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are major turmeric-producing States in India. Which of the statements given above are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 ANSWER: (d)”