November 28, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 12, 1422

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MULTAN, Nov 27: The government’s decision to retain the procurement price of wheat at Rs300 per 40 kg will have an adverse affect on production.

This was stated by former speaker of the National Assembly, Syed Fakhr Imam, here on Tuesday.

In a statement, he said by not increasing the wheat procurement price the government had in fact decreased the support price level owing to the increase in the cost of production down the year.

Imam said apart from the favourable climatic condition the record production of 21.4m tons in the year 1999-2000 was a consequence of pre-season announcement of enhancement in wheat support price from Rs240 to Rs300 per 40 kg.

“The country had a surplus wheat that year after 17 years,” he said.

In the year 2000-2001, the country had a good production of 19.4m tons and for the second consecutive year did not have to import wheat. Instead there was an accumulated 2m tons of surplus wheat in the country owing to the record productions for the last two years.

He said the country had saved $500m (Rs32 billion) by not importing wheat for the last two years and instead earned precious foreign exchange by exporting 0.8m tons.

Imam said the growers would be discouraged by the government’s wheat policy. He said the prices of phosphatic and nitrogen fertilizers had gone up following imposition of general sales tax while the cost of diesel and electricity usage for farm purposes had also soared up.

“It is evident that the government has not given any additional incentive to the growers in its wheat policy for the year 2001-2002”, he observed.

He urged the government to review its wheat policy and announce incentives for the growers, including increase in the support price so that the (growers) would put in optimum inputs to increase production.

He also expressed concern over the shortage of irrigation water in the canals to the tune of 52 per cent this year. He urged the government to envisage a foolproof wheat procurement procedure. Last year the wheat growers suffered a loss of Rs8 billion owing to the faulty official procurement system. The growers had to sell their wheat produce at Rs210 to 250 per 40 kg. Kissan Board Pakistan’s provincial president Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed also criticized the government for not increasing the support price of wheat.

He said that the farming community had always been made a scapegoat to suffer losses of faulty government polices. He said the price of wheat should be fixed at Rs400 per 40 kg in proportion to the increase in input prices.

He alleged that the government played role of ‘silent spectator’ last year when food department officials and private brokers looted the wheat growers with both hands. He said the farming community was silent only owing to internal and external challenges the country was facing at present.