Govt urged to reform wheat procurement policy

LAHORE: If the government does not reform its wheat procurement policy, it will be impossible to achieve the target set for this year. The country cannot advance on the path to economic prosperity unless self-sufficiency in wheat is achieved. The support price for wheat offered by the government is the price for wheat threshing alone, let alone being reasonable. Procurement of wheat based on districts will be equivalent to choking farmers to economic death. These views were shared by guests at the Jang Forum on the topic "Wheat yield and Procurement 2014". The guests at forum were Director Agriculture Punjab Chaudhry Khalid Mahmood, Agri Expert Tariq Bucha, President Farmer Board Punjab Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan and Chairman Agri Forum Ibrahim Mughal. The forum was moderated and anchored by Moayyed Jafri.

Agriculture Punjab Director Chaudhry Khalid Mahmood said the government was most likely to achieve wheat targets but it was imperative that we should start using latest agricultural technology. He said that 70 percent contribution was made by small farmers. He said unless the small farmer enhanced his yield, it will difficult to meet targeted yield. He also said it would be unfair to blame the government totally for any disparity between targets and actual yield because weather also played a decisive role in this regard. He said the government had been very supportive in facilitating introduction of technology in agri sector with modern tractors, water courses and other interventions. He said that in case the farmers were not satisfied with the support price then they should approach the department. Agri Expert Tariq Bucha said though wheat was the core of food protection in Pakistan yet ever since the independence we had not been able to work with a sustainable policy that worked for everyone. He said in the total share of agriculture in GDP had been reduced from 53 percent to 21 percent which was a drastic drop. If the government does not invest intelligently in this sector soon, it will collapse, he opined.

 He said local farmer was selling wheat at a very low price till 2008 but when the government increased that price in 2008, it encouraged farmer and Pakistan became self-sufficient in wheat. However, he added discrepancy in cost of production and support price had increased once again and the government needed to reconsider the price. He pointed out the government allocated Rs 380 billion for agri sector however out of these Rs 180 billion were allocated for control-sheds while 80 billion were for beverages. Due to bad policies, 6.7 percent less agri land is being cultivated and also due to disparity in pricing between Sindh and Punjab, wheat is being sold across provinces for which the Punjab government has not put up an embargo, he concluded. Chairman Agri Forum Ibrahim Mughal said this support price was equivalent to the cost of wheatthreshing. He said the Punjab accounted for 79 percent of the total national wheat production yet it had not been able to meet its set targets for the past seven years. He said if Pakistan did not improve its average yield per acre, the country would face severe food shortage to the extent of famine. He mentioned that to fulfil urban demand the government needed at least 9.9 million tons of wheat. President Farmer's Board Punjab Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan said it was strange that the federal government was still fixing price of wheat post 18 Amendment. He said around three percent production had been reduced due to escalation in fertilizers' prices. He ruled that the Punjab would fall short by two million ton in its production target of 19 million.