It is one of about 2000 species in the family Solanaceae. The word ‘potato is derived form batata, the Caribbean Arawak name for sweet potato.
Among the world’s food crops, the potato ranks in the top five in tonnage, and as a source of food energy it provides about one-sixth as many calories as rice, wheat and maize.
In potato, the stem arose at the beginning of each growing season from tuber of the previous year, referred to as the mother tuber. The eyes of potato tubers are stem buds, similar to buds on the nodes of a stem.
Potatoes planted from the seed have a several growth stages:
*Sprout development stage
*Vegetative growth stage
*Tuber initiation stage
*Tuber bulking stage
*Tuber maturation stage
High quality potato tubers are achieved through good crop management from the seed selected for planting through to the end use.
Good management can only take place with effective tools to enable to grower, store keeper and processor to apply best practice.
Potato crop
