The government has stepped back from the decision of testing Indian fruits and vegetables for pesticides.
It is being widely criticized for stepping back on the issue related to public health under Indian pressure.
But the government has been claiming that testing has been stopped in lack of adequate infrastructure at the border points and not under Indian pressure.
"A letter came from India! I don't know who the letter came to. I also don't know who read that letter," Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli said during the ruling CPN's parliamentary party meeting on Saturday. "The ministries said this was done without adequate preparation. This should be stopped for now and we should strengthen our quarantine measures and then implement it. We accepted such proposal for now."
But there are already laboratories at Birtamode, Sarlahi (Nawalpur), Kathmandu, Pokhara, Butwal, Nepalgunj and Attariya that can test pesticides in fruits and vegetables, and five of them are in districts adjoining India. The laboratories have been in operation for the past five years.
"We have been testing for pesticides of organophosphate and carbamate groups in these laboratories in the past few years," Communication Officer at the Central Agriculture Laboratory Prakash Paudel told Setopati. "Only two staffers were working in the laboratories with four positions for some time in the course of integration of staffers. But the situation is not so bad to stop work."
He claimed that the laboratories can provide reports on the day they receive samples.
Senior Crop Conservation Officer at the Central Agriculture Laboratory Rajeev Das Rajbhandari said the two pesticides are more harmful for human health.
"There was no problem in testing the pesticides of those two groups," Paudel stated. "We do not have equipment to test other pesticides but we plan to bring additional equipment."
PM Oli claimed that India did not write any letter but Spokesperson at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu Abhishek Dubey has told Setopati "We have put our views meeting top Nepal government officials and also in writing."
An Indian Embassy source said India had problem on two aspects about the inspection. The first was vegetables and fruits rot due to the time taken for tests as Nepal lacks adequate equipment and human resources at the border points. The second was regarding reciprocity and it felt Nepal should not check Indian products for pesticides when India does not do so for Nepali fruits and vegetables imported by India.
But India itself has not built laboratories at the border points and sends samples to faraway places like Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow and even Bangalore.
India, for example, sends ginger exported from Jhapa to Bangalore which is around 2,400 kilometers away to test for aldicarb group.
Chairman of Nepal Ginger Producers and Entrepreneurs Association Narendra Khadka claimed that Nepal banned use of aldicarb two decades back and farmers no longer use that pesticide. "But we still have to conduct tests for aldicarb to get clearance," he stated.
He added that India tests Nepali ginger for five other pesticides apart from aldicarb sending samples to faraway laboratories. "We have to pay Rs 5,000 for test of one sample. It takes 10-15 days to get report from Kolkata. Some gingers in the truck stuck at the border even rot," he added.
India has not even kept quarantine offices at the border points like Nepal has in place. "They point the quantity of goods coming from Nepal is less and say keeping offices at all the border points increases cost for staffers when we ask them to keep quarantine offices," Spokesperson at the Agriculture Ministry Tej Bahadur Subedi said.
Around 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables currently coming to Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market come from India.
The Indian government itself has conceded that vegetables in India consist high traces of pesticides. A decade-long government study in 2015 had concluded vegetables like capsicum, green chilli, cabbage, cauliflower, okra, brinjal, tomato, bitter gourd, cucumber, green pea and coriander had very high traces of pesticides.
This shows that stopping testing for India pesticides can put health of Nepali consumers at risk.
"The issue of ease or difficulty definitely is there. It is not easy even for Nepali exporters to go to Kolkata and Lucknow to bring reports," an officer with the Agriculture Ministry pointed. "We should look to build laboratories and increase human resources. But we should not stop testing for pesticides under someone's pressure."
