Mehsana/Ahmedabad, Sept. 25 -- Can one make a fortune growing or selling potatoes? The question may appear as one loaded with irony to a farmer from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal or Bihar, the top producers of the tuber in India. In these states, low prices often push growers to abandon their harvest by the roadside. Or plough the spuds back into the field. This happens once every few years when a record harvest pulls down prices to rock bottom levels, even lower than growing and harvesting costs.

Alpesh Navinbhai Patel, a potato grower from Sabarkantha district of north Gujarat, has a different story to tell. Five years back, Patel switched to growing a processing variety of potato, the ones used to make french fries and hash browns. In Ma...