Abrupt Indian ban on onion seeds not legal https://www.observerbd.com/news.php?id=329213

Published : Thursday, 2 September, 2021 at 12:00 AM Count : 147

M S Siddiqui

Abrupt Indian ban on onion

seeds not legal

A reputed daily reported on

16th July 2021 that,

Bangladesh produced 33.62

lakh mt of onion in 2020-21

fiscal year against domestic

demand of round 24 lakh mt

as per statistics of

Department of Agricultural

Extension Department

(DAE). There will be a

surplus of few lakh tons

after wastage between the

time period of production

and consumption. The

department provided

training for cultivation of

high variety seeds and got

success after sudden Indian

ban on seeds of onion last

year.

Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in rice, vegetables, fish and meat because the

government took initiatives to increase the production of those food items.

Bangladesh has shortage of onion of about 10 lac mt per year. The average

yield of onion in Bangladesh is far below 11 t ha-1 (BBS, 2015) as compared to

the world average of 19.32 t ha-1. Onion is mainly produced in the winter

season, and cultivation in summer season has some constrains of adverse

weather and lack of proper cultural practices. The country produced 23.30 lakh

tonnes of onion in 2019. Low yield, a lack of quality seeds and inadequate

acreage are the main reasons behind the shortfall in domestic production.

Onion is grown more or less in all the districts of Bangladesh but commercially

cultivated in the greater districts/regions of Faridpur, Pabna, Rajshahi, Kushtia,

Jessore, Dhaka and Rangpur (BBS, 2011). There are two seasonal types of

onion variety such as winter and summer are cultivated and produced annually

17 lakh tones from the total area of 1.74 lakh hectares against its demand of 22

lakh tones (BBS, 2018). The summer crop is newly developed and gradually

increasing variety.

Every year, farmers need more than 1,100 tonnes of seed, of which around

1,000 tonnes are generated by farmers, while the rest is supplied by Bangladesh

Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) and private companies

importing from other countries and mostly from India. India has repeatedly

restricted export of onion and finally banned export of onion seeds. The ban was

very abruptly without any notice to the importing countries. As per export

policy of India, the export of seeds was restricted and only against export

licence.

Now onion seeds have been banned by the government with an executive order

of the Director General of Foreign Trade ref: 43/2015-20 dated October 29,

2020 authorised in The Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20, is notified by Central

Government, in exercise of powers conferred under Section 5 of the Foreign

Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992.

Additionally, the notification also withhold guarantee clause of export policy

order to facilitate the shipment of pending orders of seeds. The export policy

order in clause no 1.05 (b) has a safeguard clause for the overseas importers for

secured delivery of the contract of products and services. The clause is "This

(ban) is subject to the condition that, the shipment of export or import is made

within the original validity period of an irrevocable commercial letter of credit,

established before the date of imposition of such restriction and it shall be

restricted to the balance value and quantity available and time period of such

irrevocable letter of credit".

The notification of ban of onion seeds also withheld the guarantee clause for all

pending contract. The act of withholding of guarantee of contracts for onion

seeds export seems not a valid order under any law of India, natural justice and

global trade practice. The importer should get proper compensation from the

Indian exporters. This may be a good litigation of enforcement of cross border

contract.

Such a situation is likely to gravely affect onion farming, especially in terms of

encouraging farmers to grow onions under a coordinated plan, with the

likelihood to harm the efforts for self-sufficiency in onions as early as possible.

The limited lands where farmers grow potatoes, tobacco, wheat or winter

vegetables could also be suitable for onion cultivation.

The government may provide seeds of high-yielding varieties of onion and

fertiliser to farmers at subsidised prices so that they can shift to onion

cultivation from other winter crops in the coming season. Bangladesh has vast

Char land in different districts embraced by Padma, Meghna, Jamuna,

Brahmaputra and other rivers, which has highly potential for onion and other

robi vegetables. Expand onion production in 'char' lands is another option

wherein the soils are light textured, provided the moisture and nutrition supply

to soil is guaranteed.

Bangladesh can increase the per hectare yield of onion is through manipulating

existing method of cultivation such as planting geometry, fertilization, irrigation

and other cultural management practices. The quality of seed yields a reason of

low production. The poor post-harvest processing and storage should improve

as 40-60% of the produced onion bulb gets wasted and harvesting period. There

is another option to develop onion variety with long shelf lives.

Onions is a winter crop in Bangladesh but are quite popular during the hot

season as it has cooling properties. It contains volatile oil that helps in balancing

the body's temperature. In summer, onion can be consumed raw as a salad.

Squeeze some on raw onion to enhance taste and it also increases the vitamin C

content. There should have option to store between harvesting and consumption.

Onion storage requires 60 percent humidity in cold storage, the temperature will

be 8 degrees to 12 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, Bangladesh doesn't have any

such cold storage.

It cultivates mostly winter variety and small quantity of summer variety. The

Spice Research Centre of the Agricultural Research Institute of Bangladesh has

so far released six varieties of onions. Of these, three varieties are summer

onions. The summer varieties BARI-5 and BARI-3 reportedly will play a big

role in making the country self-sufficient in onion. These onions are harvest in

March-June-July or August-November. Experts believe that if these summer

onions are cultivated, it can supply a large part of the demand.

Private companies have also developed seven high yielding cultivars in

Bangladesh. Some summer varieties onion can help achieve the target of self-

sufficient. This introduction of new variety of seeds for optimization of inputs

should be supported by preventive measure for disease and storage

managements, both at production and post-harvest levels must be strengthened.

Bangladesh seems benefited by the Indian non-tariff barriers and other actions

in bilateral trade. Bangladesh find alternate market of Jute in other countries

with better price after antidumping duty imposed by India. Bangladesh became

self-reliant in Cattle production after restriction on cattle export / smuggling

during last few years. Let's hope that the statistics of Bangladesh Agricultural

Department are correct and Bangladesh will hopefully continue to be self-reliant

of onion despite Indian ban on export of onion and onion seed.

M S Siddiqui is a legal economist