A sub-committee of the National Assembly Special Committee on Agricultural Products has recommended the government to fix wheat support price at Rs 1,400 per 40kg for 2019 owing to increase in prices of pesticides and other inputs.
The meeting chaired by Syed Fakhar Imam expressed serious concern over locusts entry into Punjab from Sindh and urged the government to take immediate measures to deal with the problem which may pose serious damage to crops.
The members of the committee stated that minimum support price should be in line with price hike in agricultural inputs particularly fertilizers, fuel and pesticides. They stated that the government's recommended minimum wheat support price at Rs 1,350 should be revised. The meeting was held on the directives of the speaker National Assembly who referred the business to the sub-committee after several MNAs complained regarding the minimum support price for wheat, minimum indicative price for sugarcane, negative growth of cotton, outstanding power bills against the farmers and increase in farmers' electricity bills.
The members of the committee expressed disagreement to the suggested minimum support price at Rs 1,350 by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. They stated that the farmers across the country are demanding upward revision of the minimum support price for wheat. The convener of the sub-committee Syed Fakhar Imam stated that wheat is vital to Pakistan's national food security. He added that the price mechanism is a viable policy instrument to promote crops according to the national requirements. He stated that cotton is vital to Pakistan's export earnings and edible oil requirements.
After the members of the committee pointed out that decline in cotton production would adversely affect the agro-based Pakistani economy, the chairman of the committee underlined the need for marked improvement in agricultural technology and seed variety to boost the farmers' profitability and productivity.
He urged the government to aggressively pursue linkages with other countries for agricultural cooperation. The committee urged the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to tackle the recent locust attack on war footing basis as the locust may destroy miles of crops in a single day. The committee directed Ministry of Power to brief the committee on the upward surge in electricity bills due to increase in fuel price adjustment in the next meeting.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Malik Muhammad Ehsan Ullah Tiwana, Nafeesa Inayatullah Khattak, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur and officials of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and agriculture departments of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019