Sree Bhadra

Sree Bhadra is a sweet potato released in 1996 by ICAR-CTCRI, a seedling selection from seed introduced from Nigeria in 1984. It is semi-spreading with broad cordate leaves and flowers freely. The roots are spherical with light pink skin and cream flesh, and carry only 800–1,000 IU of carotene per 100 g. CTCRI lists excellent cooking quality, 90 days and 27 t/ha, and recommends it for Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. CTCRI also notes it as useful as a trap crop for root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita). That is not the same as resistance.

Choose Sree Bhadra if you are in one of the four states CTCRI lists (Kerala, Maharashtra, Bihar or Madhya Pradesh), want 90 days and 27 t/ha, and have root-knot nematode in your field. CTCRI notes it as a trap crop. It is not listed as resistant, so keep rotating. For orange flesh pick Bhu Sona, and for the quickest cream-fleshed table root in Kerala uplands, Sree Arun or Sree Varun.

• SpacingRidges 60 cm apart with cuttings 20–30 cm apart along the ridge, which works out to about 55,000–83,000 cuttings per hectare

• Kerala
• Maharashtra
• Bihar
• Madhya Pradesh

This crop is raised from cuttings, not from seed, so you can take your own planting material. Take cuttings only from healthy, well-grown plants that are true to the variety, and never from one that showed disease — a cutting carries its mother plant with it. Where a nursery or a government farm sells clean planting material, that is the safer start.

• Sree Arun

  A 90-day CTCRI variety released in 2002 with very pale pink skin and cream flesh. CTCRI lists 20–28 t/ha (potential 30 t/ha) and Kerala uplands as its region.

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• Sree Varun

  A 90-day CTCRI variety released in 2002 with cream skin, cream flesh and smooth fusiform to spherical roots. CTCRI lists 20–28 t/ha (potential 30 t/ha) and Kerala uplands as its region.

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• Sree Vardhini

  An older CTCRI variety (1987) with purple skin and yellow flesh, listed at 100–105 days and 20–25 t/ha. It has only about 1,200 IU of carotene per 100 g, so it is not an orange, vitamin-A sweet potato.

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• Bhu Sona

  A dark-orange biofortified CTCRI variety released in 2017, with beta-carotene of 19,100–20,800 IU per 100 g of fresh root. It is field-tolerant of sweet potato weevil and of salt stress.

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• Bhu Krishna

  A purple-fleshed biofortified CTCRI variety released in 2017, with about 90 mg/100 g anthocyanin. It is highly tolerant of sweet potato weevil and salt stress, and suits the processing and natural-colour market.

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• Rajendra Shakarkand-5

  A Bihar sweet potato named from the Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa line. No official datasheet with its release year, days or yield was found, so the figures here are limited to what could be confirmed.

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