The federal government has fixed the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat at Rs 1800 per 40 kg. This amount appears to be adequate to encourage growers towards producing bigger wheat crops in order to meet country’s needs in a satisfactory manner. It is no secret that the government has been spending a lot of foreign exchange in the head of wheat import. Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), for example, has recently bought about 300,000 tons of wheat in an international tender. We can easily imagine the amount of foreign exchange the country has to spend on wheat procurement from the global market.

Hence the need for taking all the required steps aimed at forestalling the major wheat deficit which is said to be looming large.

HARIS NAWAZ (LAHORE)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021