The McCain story is quite well known. I sometimes exchange cards with their Sahibs or with the Batas in CIGI meetings and others in faraway Waterloo, Toronto and so on, but those are not quite the places where potatoes are discussed even though in real life they are actually quite important.

But it is true that McCain--which makes potatoes in very lovely ways as fries, wedges (my favorites), mashed and in many other ways known to the global housewife--landed up in Mehsana.

It must be the Gujarati farmers' commercial acumen which has sucked them in. Jeeru, Mirchu and Isabgol, all needed grading and simple first stage processing, were traded in a big way in nearby Unjha and sent for export. Unlike in the north, the kisan here is also a trader and knows that quality matters and money comes if you keep your promise.

The potato story in western India is not as well known as say the story of grapes, onions and dryland horticulture in Nashik and Nagar or illegal Bt cotton--and of course milk--but is equally interesting. The soil in north-central and north-western Gujarat can be conducive to potatoes, but water is scarce. Ground water levels are falling as aquifers are being flogged. This was the only area in Gujarat where electricity was rationed in six or eight hour cycles. But money and technology make the mare go.

McCain went into contract farming of potatoes with over a thousand farmers in Banskantha, Mehsana and Patan in north Gujarat. They are still going strong and reasonably as happy as a farmer ever can be or will ever admit.

... contd.