Kathmandu, July 9 -- Even as the political fallout over the KP Sharma Oli administration's recent decisions over pesticide testing continues, the domestic use of pesticides in Nepal's own farm produce has been quietly growing to alarming levels.

Nepal imported 635 tonnes of pest-killing chemicals, worth around Rs830 million, in the last fiscal year alone, according to data from the Plant Quarantine and Pesticides Management Centre. Most of these pesticides-85 percent-was applied to vegetables, according to Ram Krishna Subedi, information officer at the centre.

In the last decade, imports of pesticides have climbed nearly five-fold-from 132 tonnes in 2007-08 to 635 tonnes in 2017-18. Nepal started using pesticides in 1952, when USAID int...