Pungent Profits

There is an urgent need to adopt diverse strategies and produce newer varieties of onion and garlic to carve out a niche in the international markets, says KE Lawande

Horticulture has emerged as one of the potential enterprises in accelerating the country’s economic growth. The role of horticulture in providing nutritional security, employment generation and poverty alleviation is becoming increasingly important. It not only offers a wide range of options to the farmers but also provides ample scope for sustaining a large number of agro-industries which generate employment opportunities, add value to farmers produce and thereby provide a sustainable livelihood to many.

Onion and garlic are important horticultural commodities grown worldwide for their culinary purposes and medicinal values. Area under onion production worldwide is 2.7 million hectare with production to the tune of 47 million tonnes, while area under garlic is 1 million hectare with a production value of 10 million tonnes. India is the second largest producer of onion and garlic after China. Area under onion and garlic in India is 5 lakh and 1.20 lakh hectares respectively with a total production value of 49 lakh and 5 lakh tonnes, respectively. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the major onion producing states, while Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are the leaders in garlic production.

Status of onion and garlic export

India has been a traditional exporter of fresh onion and garlic. Onion is exported mainly to neighbouring countries like, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Kuwait, Indonesia, Mauritius, Seychelles, UAE, Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai, and Bangladesh. The export of onion increased from 0.69 lakh tonnes in 1975 to 5.0 lakh tonnes in 1996-97 due to the Canalization scheme of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) (Table 1). In 1997-98, onion was brought under the Essential Commodity Act and the quota system of export was introduced. This hampered export very badly during 1998-01. Despite normal production during this period the ad-hoc policy of export adopted by the Government of India pushed the exports backwards. Countries like Netherlands, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, and Pakistan exploited this situation to their advantage and succeeded in carving out a larger share in the traditional overseas markets, which were once the monopoly of India.

A lot of hue and cry made at various forums, forced the authorities to lift the quantitative restrictions on export. The situation has improved since then and India exported 5 lakh tonnes during 2001-02. The target for 2002-03 was set to the tune of 6 lakh tonnes, which has already been achieved to a considerable extent.

 Garlic is exported mostly to Bangladesh, Philippines, Singapore, UK, and the US to cater to the ethnic population settled in these countries. Export of dry garlic from India is through private agencies and is very erratic as the quantity varies from 633 to 10,282 tonnes (Table 2). The local demand and supply has a great impact on exports. In fact, India is importing garlic from China since 1998 to the tune of 15 to 30,000 tonnes. Poor yielding genotypes, high cost of seeds and its unavailability limits the productivity of garlic in India and due to low productivity and high cost of production Indian farmers are not globally competitive. Further, the small cloved varieties, with a high number of cloves, are more popular with the Indian consumers. However for export bigger cloved garlic with lesser number of cloves are preferred but the climatic conditions in major garlic growing areas in India is not suitable for the production of such types.

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