ISLAMABAD: Unlike assessments of wheat support price being increased by over Rs2,000 per 40kg, the government on Friday decided to increase the support price to Rs1,950 per 40 kg.
Addressing a press conference in this regard, Minister of National Food Security and Research (MoNFS&R), Fakhar Imam, along with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, announced that to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat, the government has decided to increase the minimum support price for wheat to Rs1,950 compared to Rs1,800 last year.
“We hope this will incentivise farmers to grow sufficient wheat to meet our national production target of 28.90 MT,” he said, adding “we also hope that availability of irrigation water and weather conditions will be conducive during Rabi season to achieve this target”.
According to Imam, due to higher international prices of DAP fertiliser and shipping cost, the domestic price which is Rs7,300 per bag has also increased significantly but the price of urea which Rs1,850 per bag is stable and significantly lower than the international price of Rs5,400 per bag because the government provides a Rs126 billion annual subsidy for natural gas.
“The government is working closely with fertiliser companies to ensure adequate availability of key fertilisers during this Rabi season. Moreover, the government has also provided over Rs16 billion for fertiliser, seed, pesticide, and agricultural loan markup subsidies. These timely initiatives have helped generate record production of many commodities,” he added.
The food minister claimed that farmers have produced record crops this year. “Pakistan has achieved the highest ever production of wheat of 27.5MMT, 8.4MMT rice, 8.5MMT maize, 0.275 MMT mung beans, 2.3 MMT onions, and 5.7 MMT potatoes.
He added that sugarcane crop had also achieved the second-highest production of 81 MMT and claimed that production is estimated at 87.67MT in FY22, 8 per cent higher than that of FY21.
According to sources, the matter of support price was discussed in the Wheat Review Committee (WRC) in its meeting held on September 27.
After due process, provinces had conveyed their endorsements on supporting the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs2050 per 40kg, except Sindh whose response was awaited.
Punjab had recommended MSP at Rs1,950, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) at Rs2,000, Balochistan’s first response was at Rs2,000; however, on the basis of the rising pricing trend and high cost of production, the province later recommended Rs2,400 per 40 kg.
The average recommended MSP was estimated at Rs2,088 per 40 kg.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on NFS&R in its meeting held on October 11 had recommended fixing the support price of wheat crop FY22 at Rs2,200 per 40 kg.
