ISLAMABAD: Experts, on Saturday, stressed upon the need for fixing the minimum support price of wheat before sowing season which should be acceptable to the farmers to ensure their profitability.

Among others, Khan Faraz, an expert from Hayatabad Peshawar informed the media at the National Press Club that there is an urgent need to ensure availability of buffer stock along with the release of wheat until the next harvest season. Moreover, efforts are needed to fix the minimum support price of wheat before sowing season and the price fixed to be acceptable/ profitable for the farmers.

He said although sowing in a large area of the country, there have been crisis of the crop shortage in the past whenever the support prices fixed were not considered profitable by the farmers.

He referred to a recent high level meeting presided over by the prime minister held at Islamabad which reviewed the current reserves of wheat in the country, potential demand and import tenders.

The meeting was informed that the current wheat production in the country was estimated at 26.389 million metric tons. The total reserves are 28.199 million metric tons against the total national demand of 30.7 million metric tons.

The meeting was further informed that under the government’s agreement with Russia, progress is being made on the import of two million metric tons of wheat, which is in the final stages. The meeting decided to import wheat in a timely manner through the Economic Coordination Committee to eliminate the gap between demand and reserves. It merits a mention that in an agricultural country like Pakistan food crisis continued to occur during the last four years, Khan Faraz added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022