In potatoes, ag tech’s next big payoff may be efficiency – not yield alone

By Lukie Pieterse, editor/publisher Potato News Today

In the global potato industry, the next big ag-tech ROI may lie in reducing waste, protecting quality, and improving efficiency across the production chain – rather than in yield gains alone.

Potato growers still need yield. That has not changed. What is changing is where technology may deliver its strongest return. Across the global potato industry, the next major ag-tech payoff may come less from chasing the final incremental tonne per hectare and more from producing each marketable tonne with less water, less nitrogen, less energy, fewer unnecessary passes, and lower losses in storage and handling.

For a crop that reached roughly 390.4 million tonnes worldwide in 2024, that shift has serious implications for growers, processors, storages, and input suppliers alike.

Potatoes are especially sensitive to inefficiency because profitability depends on more than field output. In this crop, value is shaped not only by tonnage, but by size profile, dry matter, fry color, disease pressure, storage behavior, and the ability to meet fresh or processing specifications consistently.

That is why a technology that saves water, cuts nutrient loss, improves in-season decisions, or reduces shrink in storage may create as much or more value than a tool aimed purely at raising gross yield. This is particularly true in a high-input crop where waste is expensive and quality penalties can bite hard.

Water efficiency is becoming a frontline issue

Water is one of the clearest examples. A 2025 global meta-analysis found that irrigation practices have major effects on potato yield and water productivity, and that drip and subsurface drip systems can improve water productivity under suitable conditions. The point is not simply to apply more water. It is to place water more precisely, at the right time, in the right amount, to protect both yield and tuber quality while reducing waste.

That matters even more as climate pressure increases. A recent study found that potato yields fall when average daily temperatures rise above 16.8°C, with projected losses already emerging by 2035. Another modelling study concluded that, under a high-emissions scenario, average potato yields in Germany could decline by 18 percent by 2050 without irrigation, while current irrigation levels would offset only part of that loss. In other words, the long-term value of irrigation technology in potatoes lies increasingly in efficiency under stress, not just in pushing for more tonnes in a favorable season.

Nitrogen efficiency is moving from agronomy to economics

Nitrogen tells a similar story. A global meta-analysis published in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment found that enhanced-efficiency fertilizers in potato systems can improve nitrogen-use efficiency and reduce nutrient losses. That is important because potatoes are nitrogen-demanding, but over-application or poorly timed application can erode profit, raise environmental losses, and in some cases create crop balance problems without delivering a proportional economic return.

This is where technology begins to matter differently. The question is not only how to feed the crop enough nitrogen, but how to avoid feeding it inefficiently. Better placement, better timing, variable-rate strategies, improved monitoring, and more responsive in-season decisions all point in the same direction – less waste per hectare and better conversion of inputs into saleable production. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has also highlighted the role of enhanced-efficiency fertilizer strategies in helping farmers match nutrient supply more closely to crop need.

Better sensing can improve profit before it changes yield

One reason the efficiency case is strengthening is that modern sensing systems make hidden losses easier to see. A 2025 Frontiers study noted that the standard practice of using potato petiole nitrate analysis in Wisconsin is time-consuming, destructive, and impractical for capturing field-scale variability. Researchers are increasingly showing that remote sensing, multispectral imaging, chlorophyll tools, and machine-learning-assisted diagnostics can assess nitrogen status more quickly and non-destructively.

That may sound technical, but the business logic is plain enough. If a grower can detect nitrogen stress, uneven vigor, or developing problems earlier and respond more accurately, the return may appear first as a better management decision, a more targeted intervention, or an avoided mistake. In potatoes, that kind of operational precision is often worth more than a flashy promise of yield gain that may or may not materialize under commercial conditions.

Disease prevention is also an efficiency play

Late blight remains one of the clearest reminders that preventing loss can be more valuable than trying to create new gain. USDA-ARS states that late blight continues to inflict an estimated USD 6.7 billion annually in yield losses and control costs worldwide. In practical terms, that means technologies or systems that improve disease forecasting, accelerate detection, support resistance breeding, or sharpen spray timing may deliver ROI even if they do not show up first as a measurable increase in yield. They create value by reducing avoidable loss and avoiding unnecessary cost.

That is a crucial distinction for potatoes. In many seasons, the financial win lies in protecting what is already there – the crop stand, the tuber quality, the storage potential, and the contract value – rather than in squeezing out a final marginal increase in tonnage.

Storage may be where efficiency matters most

Potatoes also force the industry to think beyond harvest. Nearly 82 percent of Idaho potatoes are stored for some duration, and U.S. federal project information notes that storage losses from shrink and disease typically run about 6 percent to 7 percent in most years, with higher losses possible when crops are compromised. AHDB guidance likewise stresses that cooling the crop is the largest consumer of energy during storage.

That makes storage technology central to the potato efficiency debate. Better monitoring, better airflow management, better humidity control, and better energy performance are not side benefits. They directly affect saleable volume, product quality, and cost per stored tonne.

A 2024 review on climate change impacts on potato storage concluded that warmer conditions are likely to worsen risks such as sprouting and diseases in storage chambers. The message is plain: in potatoes, efficiency is not just a field story. It is a full-chain story.

The caution is real: not every tool will pay

None of this means every digital or precision tool automatically makes financial sense. A 2024 study on precision agriculture economics found that adoption can improve returns, but profitability remains strongly influenced by farm size and investment burden. That warning should be taken seriously in the potato sector as well. Technology must solve a real operational problem, and it must do so at a price point the business can justify.

Still, the larger direction is becoming harder to ignore. In potatoes, the next wave of ag-tech value may increasingly be judged by blunt, practical questions. Does it reduce litres of water per marketable tonne? Does it improve nitrogen efficiency? Does it reduce storage shrink, disease loss, energy use, or rejects? Does it help growers and storages deliver more consistent quality with fewer wasted inputs?

If so, that may be where the industry’s next real ROI is found – not in yield alone, but in producing better outcomes from the crop already being grown.

Sources consulted: