Agri-Forum Pakistan (AFP) Chairman Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal has claimed that the federal government has assured the growers of substantially increasing wheat support price in response to his appeal to the Prime Minister for enhancing wheat price for the current season.
He stated that Prime Minister Secretariat informed the other day that demand about increasing wheat support price was accepted, he added. It is learnt that wheat support price would be increased to about Rs 1,150 per maund from present Rs 950. He said increase in wheat support price was need of the hour, keeping in view abnormal rise in cost of production of farmers.
He said such a step by federal government would indeed be welcomed by growers. To a question, he said, Prime Minister is expected to announce increase in wheat support price in next few days. Mughal said a visible lack of interest on the part of growers was seen during current wheat sowing campaign mainly due to high cost of inputs. He expressed the fear that wheat production could have been seriously affected this season if federal government failed to ensure provision of cheap inputs well on time.
He claimed that the cost of production of wheat has increased to Rs 1,025 per maund as prices of fertiliser, seed, diesel, electricity and agri inputs have jumped by 165 percent to 225 percent since 2008 when last increase in wheat support price was announced, he stated.
Talking about crisis of urea fertiliser, Chairman AFP said urea fertiliser has become a scarce commodity and its price is also continuously on the rise. He demanded of the government to increase gas supply to urea manufacturers as well as import fertiliser to the tune of 1.5 million tons on war footing basis. Mughal particularly mentioned problems of wheat growers of southern Punjab who had been facing problems in getting urea at relatively cheap price. He added that farmers of DG Khan division complained that they are not succeeded in getting urea bag even at Rs 1,800-1,9900.
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