July 26: Youths of Nepal are leaving the country for foreign jobs in large numbers and the farmlands in the rural areas are left barren. As a result, the country imported millets worth Rs 513 million in the last fiscal year from India.  

According to customs officials, millets worth Rs 513 million were imported from Kakadbhitta customs alone in the fiscal year 2022/23.

Information Officer at the Plant Quarantine Office in Kakadbhitta, Chandra Kishor Thakur, said that a total of 16,035 metric tonnes of millets were imported from Kakadbhitta customs point in the review year.   
Likewise, pumpkins worth Rs 57.7 million were imported from India in the last fiscal year from Kakadbhitta customs point, according to Thakur.    
Similarly, chilies worth Rs 200 million were imported from Kakadbhitta customs point in the fiscal year 2022/23, Thakur said.    
Thakur said that fruits and vegetables including onions, tomatoes, long guards, yams, watermelons, gingers and others worth billions were imported during this period from India.    
Meanwhile, the local producers in the districts of eastern Nepal have complained of limited market for the domestic products due to unrestricted imports of vegetables and fruits from India and other countries. -- RSS