Wheat harvest target may be missed

Country likely to produce 29m tons against target of 32m tons due to high input costs

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan is likely to miss this year’s wheat production target owing to high energy costs and manipulation in urea prices.

Farmers have been forced to buy urea at double the actual price as they paid over Rs5,000 per bag due to alleged monopoly of the fertiliser industry.

As the industry could not take action against price manipulation, the caretaker government referred a case against fertiliser manufacturers to the Competition Commission of Pakistan.

As prices of inputs stay at higher levels, the country is likely to produce 29 million tons of wheat in the current season, three million tons lower than the target of 32 million tons.

Officials of the food security ministry cautioned that wheat crop harvest could face further damage from expected heat waves in the coming weeks.

Wheat harvesting will commence on March 15 in most areas of Sindh. Punjab is likely to produce 22 million tons of wheat, Sindh is expected to reap a harvest of 4 million tons, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1.4 million tons and Balochistan 1.3 million tons.

Sources in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research stated that mismanagement in urea transportation and seasonal effects had sparked concerns that wheat output target may be missed in the current year.

In addition, provinces are not willing to set uniform prices of wheat that will pose challenges to the state agency in its commodity procurement drive.

The federal government has written letters to Sindh and Balochistan, asking them to fix uniform prices but their response is awaited.

Read: Wheat farmers advised against using urea

The federal government said that Sindh administration had revised the support price of wheat to Rs4,000 per 40 kg. It may be noted that in consultation with provinces, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet had approved on December 20, 2023 a “profitable” support price of Rs3,900 per 40 kg for the wheat crop of 2023-24.

At the time of fixing the support price, the food security ministry said that it was assumed that the uniform price would not only boost the production of wheat crop but also stabilise prices in the country.

Though the wheat procurement drive is about to begin, keeping in view the crop production, hoarding, smuggling, weather vagaries and price difference amongst provinces, the procurement campaign may not run smoothly.

Furthermore, Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation (Passco) will not be able to procure wheat from Sindh at a price higher than Rs3,900.

Consequently, common farmers of the province would suffer and would not be able to fetch fair returns, the food security ministry said, adding that Sindh government had been requested to revisit its unilateral decision of fixing the support price at Rs4,000.

The government of Balochistan has revised the price of wheat even higher at Rs4,300 per 40 kg compared to the rate of Rs3,900 notified in line with the decision of ECC.

In this case too, the food security ministry said that Passco would not be able to buy wheat from Balochistan at a price above Rs3,900 per 40 kg. Resultantly, like Sindh, the common growers of Balochistan will also suffer and will not be able to receive a fair return for their produce.

The ministry added that the provincial administration of Balochistan has been asked to revisit its decision of setting the support price at Rs4,300 while keeping in view the agreed price of Rs3,900.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2024.

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