No subsidy

The government's decision to abolish the minimum support price for wheat is technically correct. Its time agrarian produce in Pakistan is regulated on market-driven mechanics and at the same time made taxable to the national exchequer. But there is a flip side this year as an inclement summer is on the cards on the heels of a dry winter with little rainfall on paddy fields countrywide. Wheat cultivation is supposed to take a dip as harvesters are painstakingly complaining of less yield per acre and destruction of standing crop as a casualty of climate change. Thus, the decision to abolish subsidy should be kept open on the table and every effort made to ensure that a decent harvest is reported and there are no irregularities in helping the farmers with a real and lucrative price for their blood and sweat.

Subsidies in Pakistan are a constant, primarily intended to protect the interests of consumers by keeping the domestic price below the import parity price. This time around the decision to abolish subsidy is owing to a checklist given by the IMF that wants no minimum support price for wheat this year. The National Assembly's Standing Committee on National Food Security was informed that sufficient wheat is available and no import will be required. To what extent the dispensation lives up to its statistics is anybody's guess, as there is a convention of flood-gating grains to make some easy bucks for those at the helm at the cost of commoners and the economy. Thus, it is current history that Pakistan imported wheat worth $1 billion in the first nine months of FY24.

While keeping up the principle of demand and supply, it's time the agrarian sector is buckled up with technology and access to industry. Likewise, modern storage and accessible bank loans should be ensured to retain Pakistan's self-sufficiency in food grains, and slashing inflation across the board. Climate change incursions demand proactive measures to avoid food crisis, and constant administrative intervention is desired to increase yield per acre of all the major cash crops such as cotton, wheat, rice and sugarcane.