Potato Can be Stored by Drying

Potato is the world's fourth largest food crop - following maize, wheat and rice. Potato is an important crop of the Rabi Season in Bangladesh, providing about 8.5 million tons food supply in each year.

Potato can not be stored at room temperature. Because, It will grow sprouts and will be no more edible. In general, farmers keep their potato in the cold store. But irregular supply of electricity and load-shading disrupts the storing process and potato start decaying.

This is the sad story of Potato cultivation in Bangladesh.But, we can solve the problem by applying a simple technology. Potato can be stored by drying and the process needs only a few steps:

1.   Potato needs to be boiled and skin should be removed after boiling
2.   Boiled potato should be mashed in to paste or small fragments and sun dried up to 10 to 11 % of moisture level
3.   Sun dried potato fragments should be kept in polythene bag or PET bottles in airtight condition

Dried potato fragments  with 10~11% moisture level can be kept in polythene bags or PET bottles for round the year. Dried potato fragments can be used in preparation of soups, cakes, curries and in other relevant recipes.

Small entrepreneurs can take the process as a business project. Here is the link for YouTube video, where you can see the whole process in step by step:

 https://youtu.be/2AdyfYhRQNM