Wheat: Sindh Chamber demands higher support price

Growers cite expensive inputs and low cultivation as reasons.

HYDERABAD:

The executive committee of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has demanded of the government to fix the support price of wheat at Rs1,250 per 40 kg instead of Rs1,050 per 40 kg.      

In a meeting held here on Friday under the chair of SCA Chairman Dr Syed Nadeem Qamar, the growers cited expensive inputs and predicted low cultivation of the crop due to the recent floods as the reasons underlying their demand.

“Last year we were buying fertiliser at around Rs800 a bag. This year its price has doubled and similar is the case with the other inputs,” said a grower Aijaz Nabi Shah.

The meeting also demanded that the subsidised imported urea be sold directly to the farmers through Sindh Agriculture Department instead of dealers. The federal government has earmarked Rs25 billion in subsidies to make the imported fertiliser available at the local market rates to the farmers.

Qamar welcomed the government’s directive to the fertiliser industries to print the price tag of Rs1,480 on the urea bags. However, he cautioned that the step will although help control the black marketing of urea but more efforts are required to eradicate
the practice.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2011.