Center seeks provinces’ input for fixing wheat support price

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has sought proposals from provinces to fix a new wheat support price for upcoming crop season to incentivise farmers for a better harvest, curb imports expenses, and manage a sharp increase in demand on an increase population.

Wheat sowing is to commence in October, and the government wants to encourage farmers by facilitating them with a minimum support price (MPS) of wheat for the year 2022-23.

Minister for National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema on Friday held a meeting with provincial authorities and asked them to submit their proposal for fixing the upcoming season’s MPS for wheat and keep into account growers’ profitability, as the center wants to fix the price before the start of sowing in October 2022.

He noted that on the back of devastating flash floods in the country, land preparation costs for the next crops would escalate and would put more financial burden on wheat growers. The announcement of support prices would encourage them to bring more area under cultivation for grain production, Cheema stated.

The minister said appropriate price of the commodity would provide relief to the farmers and help them recover their losses, which accrued by recent rains and flash floods, adding that it would also help in maintaining food safety and security in the country.

For the current season, the previous government in November 2021 had fixed a MPS at Rs1,950 per 40 kilograms, while Sindh and Balochistan governments fixed their own prices of Rs2,200/40kg. Due to high prices in the two provinces, the federal government was left with no option, but to increase it to Rs2,200/40kg in March 2022, when the harvesting started.

An official said Sindh had suggested the center to fix the wheat’s MPS at Rs3,000/40kg, which was the highest of other provinces’ prices. The province wants to increase the price by Rs800 or 36.4 percent.

However, the center requested provinces to submit their proposals of the MPS and public wheat procurement targets to the ministry.

“The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet will give a final decision on the minimum support/obligatory prices for the wheat crop (2022-23).”

The productivity of wheat could be improved by ensuring a proper rate of returns to farmers for their produces, besides making the commodity production as profit-oriented, the minister said, adding that the import of wheat for building strategic reserves was putting an unnecessary burden on foreign exchange.

He was of the view that o reduce pressure on foreign exchange, it was direly required to enhance per-acre output and bring more area under grain cultivation.

Cheema also expressed his deep grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives caused by recent rains and floods, which also destroyed standing crops over millions of hectares and livestock of the farmers of these areas.

He assured full support of the government to farmers and all other people in flood-affected areas, saying the ministry of National Food Security and Research would take measures to provide them relief.

The meeting was also apprised that approximately $1 billion of import bill could be curtailed by profitability of the wheat crop, besides announcing MPS well before the sowing season.

It’s worth mentioning that around five to six million people are added to the country’s population every year, who increase the demand for the staple.

Earlier this month, The ECC, chaired by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, decided to import wheat from Russia if they agreed upon a price of $399.50 per tonne on a government-to-government (G2G) basis. PM Shahbaz Sharif has also formed a committee, led by Special Assistant to PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, to negotiate with the Russian Embassy over import of wheat. Russian delegation meeting has offered a wheat price of $400/ton in a meeting with Commerce ministry.