KUFRI GAURAV: A NUTRIENT EFFICIENT MEDIUM MATURING POTATO VARIETY FOR NORTH INDIAN PLAINS

A new high yielding medium maturing white tuber potato variety Kufri Gaurav was bred for cultivation in northern plains of India. At most of the places, Kufri Gaurav gave higher yield than the medium maturing cultivars. This variety performed well both under early-medium (75 days) and medium (90 days) harvests. Specific areas for its adaptation are Haryana, Punjab, Uttaranchal and western Uttar Pradesh and is likely to be a good replacement for medium maturing cultivars like Kufri Pukhraj and Kufri Pushkar. An important feature of this variety is that it is a nutrient efficient variety. Kufri Gaurav showed about 9.7-21.2% greater agronomic use efficiency of N than best control Kufri Pukhraj/ Kufri Pushkar during the study period in northern plains. Kufri Gaurav also showed 11.7-19.2% greater agronomic use efficiency of P and 15.8-19.9% greater agronomic use efficiency of K than best control Kufri Pukhraj/ Kufri Pushkar. Kufri Gaurav performs better under nutrient (N, P and K) stress conditions than other control varieties like Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Pukhraj and Kufri Pushkar. Moreover, it also responds to high doses of N, P and K.