Rahoo dubs Centre’s wheat support price ‘anti-farmer’

KARACHI:

Sindh Agriculture Minister Muhammad Ismail Rahoo has expressed dismay over the federal government's decision to fix the minimum support price of wheat at Rs1,800 per 40 kilogrammes (kgs) for the current season and has termed the move "anti-farmer" and a stimulus to a crisis.

In a statement issued on Saturday, a day after National Food Security Minister Syed Fakhar Imam announced the new support price, he said the Sindh government would not accept the Centre's decision and continue with the minimum wheat support price of Rs2,000 per 40kgs.

"The rate set by the federal government will create a crisis in the country," he warned, adding that the Sindh government could not back the Centre on its "anti-farmer decisions".

Rahoo added, "And hence, it will be for the first time in the that the wheat price will be different in each province."

The minister further decried that the prices of machines used in the agriculture sector, fertilisers, seeds and pesticides had increased by 150 per cent.

"This incompetent government has deprived farmers of their rights, but farmers know how to claim their rights," he said.

Rahoo alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan was backing wheat mafia instead of providing relief to farmers.

"Fakhar Imam and [Punjab Food Minister] Aleem Khan say increasing the price of wheat by Rs400 is a historic move, but it is a false claim. The price has been increased by just 28.58 per cent, while the Sindh government had [earlier] increased the price to Rs600, by a margin of 42.85 per cent," he went on.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2021.