June 22: With the government's decision to impose VAT on onion from the fiscal year (FY 2023/24), its import has come to a standstill. Due to the halt in imports, there is a shortage of onions in the market and the prices have skyrocketed.

Experts in the agricultural sector say that if the onion mission program launched by the government 16 years ago had been successful, the situation would have been different today.

The government launched the Mission Onion campaign in 2007 to increase onion production in the country with the belief that onions that can be grown in abundance in the country to minimize the growing imports. Today, the government officials running the mission are themselves unaware of the program.

The government had started the program of providing subsidies for seeds, fertilizer and irrigation to the farmers to substitute import by increasing the domestic production of onion in Rupandehi, Saptari, Siraha, Banke, Bardia, Jhapa and other districts. Unfortunately, the campaign failed within five years.

When New Business Age contacted the officials of National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crops Development about the situation of mission onion, they responded that there is no record of the program with the center. They replied that they had been in the center for only a few years and that the program was conducted by the Department of Agriculture long ago, so they did not know anything about it.

The Information Officer of the Department of Agriculture, Sunil Kumar Singh, tried to avoid discussing the issue saying the spokesperson needs to be contacted for the details. He admitted that he was not aware of the matter. The spokesman of the department, Januka Pandit on the other hand, could not be contacted at all. According to the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crops Development, the annual demand for onion in Nepal is 401,686 metric tons. In FY 2078/79, 298,000 metric tons of onions were produced in Nepal. Looking at the production and consumption, it does not seem possible to meet the domestic demand with domestically produced onions alone.

According to the customs department, in the last 5 years, 966,000 metric tons of onions worth Rs 26.10 billion have been imported into Nepal. In the 10 months of the current fiscal year, 155,000 metric tons of onions worth Rs 5.79 billion have been imported.