The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has maintained the existing support procurement price of wheat at Rs 1,300 per 40-kg on the recommendation of Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Sources said wheat was a major food crop of the country and its sustainable production would ensure food security in the country and the federal government, in order to safeguard the interest of growers and ensure food security for the masses, reviews the minimum support price for wheat crop.
The support price mechanism played a major role to boost up the production of wheat in recent years. The support price has been evaluated on the basis of multiple factors, including cost of production.
Resultantly, production of wheat has been increased even over and above the national requirement of the country. Keeping in view the world prices of wheat and fluctuating prices of major farm inputs, the minimum support price of Rs 1,300 per 40-kg has been retained for the last four years.
According to the International Grains Council, London, the world wheat production would slightly decrease to 717 million tonnes in 2018-19 as compared to 758 million tonnes in 2017-18. The world wheat trade and consumption would remain at the level of 173 million tonnes and 734 million tonnes, respectively.
Agriculture Policy Institute (API) has worked out the Cost of Production (CoP) of wheat crop 2018-19. In order to determine an appropriate support price for the next crop, major determinants like world wheat situation, cost of production, export/import parity price and domestic producer prices are taken into consideration.
The CoP for wheat crop 2018-19 has been worked out for Punjab at Rs 1,284 per 40-kg and for Sindh at Rs 1,271 per 40-kg.
The matter of support price was discussed in the meeting of Wheat Review Committee held on 12-09-2018 under the chairmanship of the secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
All provincial governments were requested to provide their proposals on part of their provinces, regarding fixation of support price. In this regard, the governments of Punjab, KP, Balochistan and Sindh provided consent of their respective provinces.
As the sowing of wheat crop 2018-19 has been started in some southern parts of the country, therefore it is appropriate time to announce the support price of wheat crop 2018-19.
The provincial governments of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh had proposed to maintain the existing support price of Rs 1,300 per 40-kg for wheat crop 2018-19.
In order to create a balance between the producer and consumer, and considering the continuous decline in international market price as compared to its export/import parity, the Ministry of NFS&R also proposed that there does not appear to be any justification for increasing the support price of wheat crop 2018-19 beyond the level of Rs 1,300 per 40-kg.
In view of above, this ministry recommended for maintaining the existing support price of wheat and the ECC was, therefore, requested to accord formal approval to the proposal for maintaining the support price of Rs 1,300 per 40-kg for wheat crop 2018-19.