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.

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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