Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has warned the government that failure in enhancing the support price for wheat will lead to decrease in its production and spending huge precious foreign exchange on import to meet domestic requirements. KBP Chief Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan while addressing a representative meeting of the growers here on Thursday said that the government should immediately enhance support price for wheat keeping in mind interests of both the growers and the consumers.
"If a suitable increase is not made in the support price then it will lead to shortfall of sowing of this important crop and a flour crisis in the country," Sardar Zafar predicted.
He said both the federal and provincial governments should pay attention towards this important issue. Increase in agricultural inputs including petrol, diesel, electricity and others had put an unbearable burden on the growers and multiplied their hardships. Similarly, this hike had also put burden on the consumers and they have been deprived of purchasing power for even basic daily use commodities.
Sardar Zafar said that whenever the government had fixed an appropriate support price farmers community produced surplus grain. However, he warned, that if government showed obstinate attitude and did not pay heed to the hardships of the growers then it would have to import wheat items worth billions of rupees. He said that the government should give subsidy to needy and poor but also help the growers.
He said that now the government has full data of needy and deserving people to support them but increase in support price is essential to achieve self-reliance in food.
Coming to the sugarcane growers' problems, Sardar Zafar said that they were receiving information that the mills had started crushing season but government had not announced the minimum purchase price due to which millers had a chance to exploit the cane growers.
KBP Chief urged the government to immediately announce support price for wheat and sugarcane crops to save the farmers from exploitation.
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