Provincial Cost of Production Committee (CPC) on agriculture held a meeting here on Tuesday to discuss the impact of increased input cost, including hike in electricity and diesel prices on different crops to suggest their support prices. The committee meets every year to review the prices of different crops and suggest any changes in it keeping in view the cost of production.
Director General Agriculture (Extension) Punjab Dr Anjum Ali chaired the meeting, which was attended by different wings of the Punjab Agriculture Department and representatives of growers. Participants of the committee suggested support price of wheat, gram, mustard, canola, sunflower, potato and other crops for the year 2011-12.
Agri Forum Pakistan Chairman Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal, who represented the growers in this meeting, said that the participants suggested fixing the support price of wheat at Rs 1142 per 40/kg for the year 2011-12. Similarly, the meeting suggested support price of gram crop at Rs 1763 per maund, canola at Rs 2159 per maund, sunflower at Rs 2059 per maund and potato at Rs 528 per maund.
He said these prices were suggested keeping in view the prevailing input prices and other expenditures. However, Mughal warned, that if prices of fertilisers, diesel, pesticides and other inputs continue to increase at the prevailing pattern, then these suggested support prices would become meaningless.
Sources said that the prices suggested at the meeting are an initial exercise and would be submitted to the provincial government for consideration and later passing on to the Federal Government for reviewing the proposals sent by all the provinces and then announcing the final support price.