November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. The records of the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee show that the wholesale price of onion, which was Rs 45 per kg in the first week of last October, has now increased by Rs 15 per kg to Rs 60 per kg. Currently, the price of onion has increased due to the 'off season'.

According to the current market price, 417,000 metric tons of onions worth more than Rs 25 billion are consumed in Nepal in a year. As per the data of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development, 289,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21, while 129,000 metric tons had to be imported from abroad to meet the demand. In the same year, 11.5 tons of onions were exported from Nepal. A large part of onion consumed by Nepalis is imported from other countries including India.

In the year 2019/20, a total of 288,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal, while 160,000 tons were imported to meet the domestic demand. The data of onion import confirms that the government has not paid much attention to increasing the production of onion, which is used in large quantities in the Nepali kitchen. Onion is a crop that can be produced in abundance in Nepal. But looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the area for onion production is also decreasing.

In the year 2018/19, onion cultivation was done on 20,900 hectares of land. In the years since then, the area of ​​onion cultivation is on gradual decline. According to government data, onions were cultivated only on 20,400 hectares in 2019/20 and 20,300 hectares in 2020/21.

Sandeep Subedi, horticulture officer at the Bagmati Province Office of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development admitted that the government has not introduced any big programmes to promote onion production. According to him, although there are good prospects for onion cultivation in Nepal, there is problem with seeds. He said that the seeds currently being used in Nepal are not of high quality and even seeds imported from India are not easily available.

Earlier, the government had planned to conduct potato and onion mission programme for four years from the fiscal year 2019/20, but that plan has been limited to papers. Even before that, the government had conducted a programme to increase onion production from 2007 to 2012 in Sirha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa and Rupandehi by spending Rs 50 million. However, the programme could not be successful due to irregularities in the purchase and distribution of production materials.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the central government has not introduced any programme to increase onion production. “We have not brought such programmes after the previous failure. Since the production process of onion seed is sensitive and complicated, it has to be brought from India. However, India does not provide the required amount. Due to lack of seeds, we have not been able to bring a programme to increase production,” said Spokesperson Sanjel.