Wheat crisis: 'Govt must increase wheat support price for domestic farmers'

LAHORE: To overcome the wheat crisis on a permanent basis, it is imperative for the government to increase the wheat support price for domestic farmers, and promote high yield wheat varieties and for this it should increase spending on agriculture research and development.

These were the views expressed by during a meeting of Agriculture Republic, a think-tank comprising experts from farming, agriculture, climate change and food security communities, which discussed critical issues on improving the state of agriculture in Pakistan, Aamer Hayat Bhandara, a farmer and activist, told Business Recorder here on Thursday. The meeting was moderated by him and Fouad Bajwa, an entrepreneur and public policy advisor.

A number of recommendations were made in the meeting and an increase in the wheat support price was one of them. The experts believed that the government should enhance the rate, which will encourage farmers to sow more wheat and thus it will not improve the supply of this staple commodity but also stabilise its consumer price. They believed that this step will neutralise mafia involved in smuggling and stocking of wheat since they thrive on huge fluctuation in the wheat price; and moreover, it will reduce the burden on the depleting foreign reserves due to zero import of wheat.

They also stressed for educating farmers on new methods of farming, since a huge number of them are still practising the outdated broadcast method, which is no more effective. Thus, the experts suggested switching over to drill or raised bed plantation, which is a cost-effective and high yielding model. They urged government assist farmers to in importing wheat sowing drills from Europe, which can increase yield by 30 percent.

They found a weak link between the agriculture extension department and agriculture universities, which in their opinion needs to be strengthened; the department should assist researchers in data collection, assessment of annual productions and forecasting future prices. This information, they believed, should be made public so that farmers could make cropping decisions accordingly; 95 percent of farmers are not aware of production forecasts numbers. They pointed out that a reliable data will also help in assessing the national food security situation.

The meeting observed that Pakistan needs to review its policy based on subsidy in agriculture produce; farmers should be facilitated without creating market distortions and it is the only way to move away from subsistence farming towards more commercial/market-driven agriculture.

They also stressed for focusing on high yield wheat varieties and the government should invest in agricultural R&D. They pointed out that moving towards organic farming can also help farmers earn good returns and improve soil health.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020