December 15: Export of vegetable seeds produced in Nepal is come to a halt due to the inability to maintain quality of the seeds. Nepal, which used to export seeds to various countries until 16 years ago, is currently importing vegetable seeds worth millions of rupees from those countries.

According to the data provided by the Agribusiness Promotion Support and Training Center, Nepal used to export vegetable seeds to India, Bangladesh, Germany and Japan by producing them in hill districts including Rukum, Salyan, Pyuthan since the fiscal year 2086/87. In that year, Nepal produced half a metric ton of radish seeds and exported them to Bangladesh.

After Bangladesh increased the demand order saying that the seeds of Nepal were of good quality, Nepal started producing seeds of cauliflower, radish, brinjal and tomato and exported them to other countries as well. According to government data, Nepal exported up to 89 metric tons of seeds to India in FY 2006/07 due to good demand.

However, Nepal could not give continuity to the production and export of seeds.

As a result, the country is now forced to import seeds worth millions of rupees annually, says Amar Raj Sharma, senior crop development officer of the centre.

He claims that the demand for vegetable seeds produced in Nepal is decreasing and the export has stopped due to the weakness of the Nepali seed production company. He said, “The main reason why the export of the seeds produced by us stopped is that we could not maintain the quality. If we can maintain the quality, we can still export seeds.”

According to him, since the seed production centers were established in remote areas, the germinating power of the seeds started to decrease while being transported to Kathmandu due to the bad condition of roads.

Seed producers also need to maintain a distance of at least two kilometers while producing seeds of two different varieties. However, the distance could not be maintained due to lack of land.

As a result, adulteration was seen in the seeds.

Due to lack of adequate irrigation and fertilizer, the size of seeds was also a problem. Apart from this, the work on development and growth of indigenous varieties of seeds could not be done. As per the information, there is also a decline in the development of hybrid varieties, due to which the demand for seeds from foreign countries stopped and subsequently the  export also came to a halt.

The center informed New Business Age that Nepal imported about 150,000 kilograms of vegetable seeds worth more than Rs 433.39 million in the last fiscal year alone.