LETTER: Wheat is the most important staple food crop of Pakistan. Although on a large area, there have been crises of crop shortage in the past whenever the support prices fixed were not considered profitable by farmers.

It will be pertinent to give a brief history of the wheat situation in the country:

i) The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet in its meeting held on December 22, 2017 had allowed the export of 2 million tons of wheat and wheat products.

ii) The ECC in its meeting held on November 20, 2018 had approved 500,000 tons of wheat exports only a month after the same quantity was exported to shed the surplus stocks.

iii) The ECC in its meeting held on June 22, 2020 gave its go-ahead to the private sector to import 2.5 million tons of wheat to control prices in the domestic market. It can be observed from the above that Pakistan has become a wheat importing country instead of an exporting one (the change).

The government has started a crackdown on wheat farmers for procurement of wheat stocks; it has also targeted those who produce wheat for their own exclusive use (another change). Also, there are challenges including climate change, pest attacks and shortage of water that have severely hamstrung agriculture production potential. Farmers have no direct access to markets, due to which they are being exploited by middlemen. The government must pay attention to their plight without any further loss of time.

Khan Faraz (Hayatabad, Peshawar)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020