1Central Potato Research Station, Muthorai, Ootacmund, 643 004, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India.
2Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, 171 001, Himachal Pradesh, India.
3Central Potato Research Institute Campus, Modipuram, 250 110, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Two indigenously developed Indian processing cultivars Kufri Chipsona-1 and Kufri Chipsona-2 along with exotic cultivars Atlantic and Frito Lay-1533, and local cv. Kufri Jyoti were evaluated over 2 years under Nilgiri hills conditions in south India. Besides total and processing grade tuber yield, observations were recorded on number of tubers per plant, average tuber weight, and processing attributes, viz., tuber dry matter, reducing sugars, sucrose, free amino acids and chip colour. Reaction of the cultivars to late blight disease which appears in epidemic form in the region was also recorded. Kufri Chipsona-1 (426 q ha−1) and Kufri Chipsona-2 (355.6 q ha−1) were top yielders and produced the maximum processing grade tuber yield. Both the cultivars possessed high tuber dry matter, low reducing sugars and low total free amino acids. Kufri Chipsona-2 produced acceptable light colour chips, whereas, chip colour of Kufri Chipsona-1 was near acceptability limit. Exotic cultivar Atlantic produced acceptable chip colour but its tuber yield was poor. Both Kufri Chipsona-1 and Kufri Chipsona-2 recorded high field resistance to late blight disease, whereas, all other cultivars were found susceptible and poor yielders.
