Kufri Jamunia: ICAR-CPRI's Biofortified Purple Potato

India's potato basket has a purple entrant worth remembering. Kufri Jamunia, bred by the ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute (ICAR-CPRI), was placed before growers in 2024 and stands at the top of the institute's coloured potatoes on nutrition. A Press Information Bureau backgrounder put out on 18 October 2026 set out what the tuber carries and where it can be grown.

Why a coloured potato at all

The target is hidden hunger: plates that fill the stomach yet leave vitamins and minerals short. One answer is biofortification, which raises a crop's nutrient content through plant breeding rather than adding nutrients during processing, the way ordinary food fortification does. The nutrition therefore travels inside the tuber itself, which keeps the method cheap to sustain once seed reaches a farmer's hands. Natural pigments such as anthocyanins and carotenoids give coloured tubers their red, purple and blue flesh, and those same pigments work as antioxidants, alongside micronutrients like iron and zinc.

Three coloured varieties from ICAR-CPRI

Kufri Neelkanth, cleared in 2018, was the institute's first purple-skinned specialty potato and is grown in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Kufri Manik arrived in 2021, its round deep-red tubers holding yellow flesh rich in anthocyanin, zinc and iron. Kufri Jamunia of 2024 outscores both on ascorbic acid, anthocyanin and carotenoids.

The tuber and the yield

This is a medium-maturing variety with medium-tall plants and a semi-compact canopy. Every plant lifts 10-12 medium to large tubers: oblong, shallow-eyed, dark purple on the skin, purple in the flesh and mealy to the bite. Growers who follow the recommended package can expect 32-35 tonnes a hectare, while station trials of 90 days duration recorded close to 49 tonnes. Nearly 90% of the produce in those trials was marketable, and dormancy of 6-8 weeks keeps the tubers from sprouting early, with little rottage or weight loss in store.

How the nutrition compares

In the kitchen and in the field

The flesh holds 42.05 mg of anthocyanins per 100 g and the skin 80.66 mg, with carotenoids near 161 micrograms per 100 g of fresh weight, about 22.77 ppm zinc and 32.23 ppm iron. Multi-location trials were steady enough for the variety to be recommended for the North Indian plains. Cooks can use it for curry, paratha, puri and raita, in daliya, halwa, upma, dosa and idli batter, and as potato flour for bakery goods, soups and cookies; the tubers also dehydrate into anthocyanin-rich daliya, suji and flour.