Let us first start with an important statistics. Do you know what is the total production of Ginger in our country as per Ministry of Agriculture Development? It is much more than anticipated and this is why we are the third largest ginger producer and exporter in the world. The total production of Ginger in FY 2011/12 was 255,208 Metric tons. It is not at a small quantity. There are huge potentials hidden in this production.

Let us take a slight shift to the economic hurdles in our country. Gross Domestic Product of a country is calculated across the globe which gives the total value of goods and services produced within the boundaries of the country in a specified period of time and it is how the economies are measured in the world. There is another term Gross National Income which is also calculated adding up the transfer payments to the GDP. In a country like ours, GNI is almost double of GDP, why does this happen? Major reasons why this happens are that the self-consumption in the country is very high and informal sector in the economy. In case of Nepal, around 35% of the economy is said to be the informal sector economy which transaction does not get added to the national economy. Lack of proper implementation of policies has made us stand at the verge of a notion that Ginger has been manipulated a lot by the informal economy participants. This is the major challenge to the actual value that can be generated by the Ginger production in the market.

The challenges do not end up here; there are many others: Derisoryinformation on quality seed suppliers, Deficient technical knowledge on plant protection measures, Low productivity, Traditional cultivation practices, Limited collective marketingpractices and low bargaining power are few others. Many of us are still unaware that in Salyan, Ginger with the least fibres can be produced and that has been already identified by Government Organizations but there are no sufficient policies to support that. Same seeds if planted otherwise Salyan, does not give the same type of Ginger output. This clearly signifies that Salyan has the comparative and competitive advantage for the special variety of Ginger production but it is not being taken care of. Biotechnology is least used in agro-commercialization process, the best varieties can be genetically replicated and planted which can provide better yield.

It’s high time we understand the economic importance of Ginger and the role commodity exchanges that can play in its market value generation.