Support price: Wheat price should be Rs1,500 per maund, says Manzoor Wattoo

LAHORE:

Pakistan People’s Party central Punjab president Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo on Wednesday demanded that the support price of wheat be fixed at Rs1,500 per forty kilogrammes.

Wattoo also said that the import of maze be banned as domestic production was at a surplus.

He said that the issue of fixing support prices for rice, wheat, cotton, maze and potatoes should be addressed carefully.

“Farmers must get a satisfying reward for their toil. This is one way of improving the living standards of people in rural areas. If our farmers are prosperous, the country will be prosperous,” he said.

He said that the government’s Kissan Package was a publicity stunt. “The land-holding requirement for getting aid under the package should be eliminated to make it non-discriminatory,” he said.

He said that livelihood of more than 70 per cent of the country’s population depended on agriculture. “Therefore, the development of this sector should be a top priority of the government. The sector is seldom given the importance it deserves,” he said.

Wattoo said that the government was following policies that were harmful for growers. “The farmers are frustrated with the government and its policies,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2015.