Wheat support price: Farmers threaten to launch nationwide protests

LAHORE: Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) Chairman Khalid Hussain Bath on Friday warned that farmers across the country will launch protests from November 1 if the government fails to announce a fair wheat support price and start the sugar mills’ crushing season from November 01, 2025.

He said the farmers’ body would set up hunger strike camps, along with their children, outside the press clubs nationwide to draw attention to the worsening economic conditions of the farming community. He demanded that the wheat support price should be fixed at Rs 4500 per maund instead of Rs 3500 per maund.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, Khalid Bath said the government had failed to announce a reasonable wheat support price, citing pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an excuse for not purchasing wheat from farmers. He said that farmers had bought wheat at Rs 1,800 per maund and were now facing severe financial hardship, as the same wheat was being sold in the market for Rs 3,700 per maund. Farmers cultivate wheat, he added, but are compelled by the government to sell it at prices set without considering their input costs.

Bath said the cost of cultivating one acre of wheat had risen to Rs 182,000, while the per-acre yield brought in only Rs 107,000, resulting in a loss of Rs 75,000 per acre. He said farmers were bearing high expenses on DAP, urea, seeds, sowing, and electricity bills, while the government continued to ignore their plight.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025