Farmers decry deregulation of wheat crop price

As the government expedites the process of deregulating wheat crop, agriculturists in Sindh have cried out against the impending development.

They cited higher cost of cultivation and low crop prices, amid export ban as the reasons for keeping the wheat prices regulated under the state's watch.

. In this regard, a eeting of Sindh Abadgar Board in Hyderabad on Sunday cautioned that the Sindh government may although satisfy the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this will happen at a cost of immense financial losses to farmers.

"The decision can even negatively impact cultivation and harvest of wheat in the province," warned Mahmood Nawaz Shah of SAB, a farmers' lobbying group, who chaired the meeting.

In 2024, the provincial government had set a target of procuring 900,000 tons from the wheat growers against an official price of Rs4,000 per 40 kilograms. The government had paid the same rate for the crop in the preceding year.

However, as the government plans to evade this official support price, agriculturists fear that they are being left at the mercy of allegedly exploitative middlemen who are blamed for buying the harvest at a lower price before selling it exorbitantly.

Shah observed that the de facto implementation of the deregulation had actually started in 2024 but without taking the farming community on board. The board's president said the local markets are offering low prices for the crop and the wheat exports, which help farmers earn profits, are banned. According to him, the same problem of prices below cost of crop cultivation are being witnessed for other crops like tomatoes whose growers are not being paid even Rs8 per kilogram. He complained that the government is taking no efforts to curb black marketing and consequent skyrocketing prices of agricultural inputs but the crop prices are being deregulated to the detriment of farmers. "How is it going to materialize that the growers buy inputs at expensive rates and later they sell their produce cheaply?" he questioned.

Shah said wheat is the most vital crop and any hasty decision about deregulation may result in food security issues. The meeting also reiterated unequivocal rejection of the proposed construction of six new canals on the Indus River. Dr Zulfiqar Yousfani, Dr Muhamamd Bashir Nizamani, Aslam Mari, Imran Bozdar, Taha Memon and other office bearers and members of the SAB attended the meeting.