Rural economy: ‘Fix wheat support price at Rs1,500’

LAHORE:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Punjab president Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo demanded on Sunday that the government fix support price for wheat at Rs15,00 per 40 kilogrammes.

He issued a statement rejecting the Rs1,300 support price announced by the government. He said the price should be raised to help farmers recover the cost of expensive inputs. He said a mechanism should be evolved to extend targeted subsidy on flour to the underprivileged population. Wattoo said the PPP’s government had increased the support price of wheat from Rs626 to Rs950 per 40 kilogrammes in 2008. This had helped the country attain the status of a wheat-exporting country, he said. “The decision had brought a qualitative change in the rural economy,” he said.

He said the country’s industrialisation depended on the development of agriculture sector.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2014.