KARACHI:
The growers’ bodies urged the Sindh government to immediately operate the wheat procurement centres, provide bags, purchase 1.4 million tonnes from farmers and increase the support price as all these steps will benefit and encourage the farmers.
They said farmers had been harvesting wheat for the past two weeks, but the government’s procurement centers were still dysfunctional. Harvest time starts on February 20th and lasts until April 30th.
They expected a bumper crop of over 5 million tonnes in Sindh due to favorable winter weather conditions, adequate water supply and other supporting factors.
Almost 4.8 million tonnes of wheat were produced in the province last year. The government fixed the support price at Rs 4,000 per 40 kg for the previous season and set a procurement target of 1.4 million tonnes but, according to growers, could buy 1.3 million tonnes because private buyers used to pay higher prices which ranged from Rs 4,500 to Rs 4,600 per 40 kg in the local market.
This year, although production has increased, the government has lowered the procurement target and has also not hiked the support price despite soaring food inflation.
“We demand the government to operationalize wheat procurement centers by April 1, provide bags, secure payments and increase the procurement target to 1.4 million tonnes from 900,000 tonnes,” said Nabi Bux Sathio, Senior Vice President Sindh Chamber of Agriculture. (SCA).
He pointed out that the wheat support price of Rs 4,000 had been fixed by the Sindh assembly of commissioners and approved by the Sindh cabinet a day ago.
However, the cost of agricultural inputs that included fertilizers, seeds, fuel and others offset the output performance this year, Sathio said.
He added that if the government had hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wheat in stock, it must be investigated why flour mills and Chakkis (smaller flour mills) did not receive the commodity a few months ago when flour prices shot up.
He pointed out that now the flour mills and Khakkis would definitely require fresh wheat.
“We reject the support price of Rs 4,000 per 40 kg and demand the government to fix the price at Rs 6,000 as well as ensure supply of wheat flour at Rs 75 per kg for the benefit of the people,” said advocate Ali Palh. Chairman of the Sindh Agriculture Research Council (SARC) small growers organization.
He was of the view that the government should fix the support price in line with rising inflation.
“Growers spent more on crops due to the increase in seed and fertilizer prices. If they don’t get better yields, they will be discouraged and not grow more wheat, putting food security at risk,” he said.
He called for a major focus on research and development (R&D) in the agricultural sector to enhance crop yields to prevent future food security challenges as Pakistan’s population was increasing day by day.
Instead of giving boring bags for wheat supply to third parties and middlemen, the government should provide them directly to small growers so that farmers can benefit from the policy, he stressed.
He alleged that the middlemen were buying wheat from the growers at prices ranging from Rs 2,800 to Rs 3,500 per bushel and stressed the need to eliminate their role.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15u2024.
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