A high-level committee on agriculture for implementation of the Cabinet decisions on Wednesday considered a proposal to release wheat in coming season to flourmills at Rs 950 per 40-kg. A meeting of the committee was held in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, chaired by Federal Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal.
The meeting was also attended by Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman, Federal Minister for Industries Manzoor Wattoo, Federal Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and Federal Minister for Local Government Abdur-Razaq Thaheem besides senior officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Sources told Business Recorder the committee noted that the government had announced the wheat support price at Rs 950 per 40-kg that would cost Rs 1150 per 40-kg to flourmills with the inclusion of transportation and storage charges of food departments and provinces. The committee suggested that wheat should be provided to flourmills at Rs 950 per 40-kg and the remaining cost should be borne by the government that would accumulate to Rs 25 billion to facilitate consumers. The government is currently providing wheat to flourmills at Rs 750 per 40-kg.
The committee was informed that around Rs 80 billion had been spent on the import of wheat due to its shortage in the country. The committee reviewed the wheat crop situation and hoped that the country would be able to achieve bumper crop of wheat due to better weather situation and there would be no need to import wheat to meet the country's requirement. The committee proposed that the government should give Rs 25 billion to provide the subsidised wheat flour to consumers as the government would save billions of dollars foreign exchange by not importing wheat.
The committee was informed that it would be difficult for the private sector to procure wheat due to higher wheat support price of Rs 950 per 40 kg. The committee decided to take measures to encourage the private sector to procure wheat through easy access to loans and State Bank of Pakistan would be suggested to formulate a policy in this regard. The bank would also be proposed to give loan to private sector for wheat procurement by taking pledge from private sector that it would build the stock reserves for the country's requirements.
The committee was briefed on the situation of major cash crops of wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane and the steps the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and other concerned authorities were taking to ensure food security in the country and to turn agriculture into a profitable and competitive sector of the economy.
Federal Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal told the committee that the government had set the highest-ever procurement target of 6.5 million tons keeping on mind the upcoming record wheat crop and ensured that farmers could get their price. "To achieve this target the ministry has devised a comprehensive plan after taking all stakeholders on board and provincial governments would be advised to give Passco open access to all wheat growing areas," the minister added.
The minister said that it is because of increasing Minimum Guaranteed Price of wheat to 950 per 40-kg and timely announcement that we are expecting a record wheat crop of 25 million tons. The committee decided to devise mechanism to ensure that the consumers get flour at reasonable rates.
The committee observed that any kind of ban either inter-district or inter-provincial would harm the interest of growers as well as that of poor consumers and food-deficient provinces. So, it is desired that no such policy should be followed in future so that consumers from all over Pakistan could get wheat and flour at same prices and with continuous supply. It was also decided to formulate a sub-committee on rice to thrash out the issues relating to the rice crop having representation of provincial governments and other stakeholders.
The minister said that policies of the government aim at protecting the interests of small farmers and poor consumers. He noted that agriculture sector could become the engine of economic growth and the decision of increasing the amount of agricultural loan from Rs 200 billion to Rs 250 billion, Benazir Tractor Scheme, Benazir Agriculture Card Scheme and increasing the share of agricultural developmental projects in PSDP from Rs 15.5 billion to Rs 20 billion are milestones in way to changing agriculture sector into the most dynamic sector of the country's economy.
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