March 06, 2008	Thursday	Safar 27 ,1429

LAHORE, March 5: Farmers have rejected the official wheat support price of Rs510 per 40kg and asked the government to build adequate buffer stocks to forestall the crisis feared due to wheat production falling to 20 million tons this year.

Representatives of farmers’ organisations participating in a discussion on ‘wheat purchase and prosperity of farmers’ arranged by Kisan Board, Pakistan, here on Wednesday said the government should fix the wheat support price at Rs1,000 per 40kg in accordance with the international price if it wanted the farmers to sell their produce to it. The step, they held, would also check wheat smuggling automatically. Support prices of other crops should also be brought at par with the world market because the farmers were purchasing inputs at international prices, they argued.

They said the farmers would resist the attempt of the commission mafia to purchase the entire wheat produce in the name of 30 per cent urban population. They criticised the government for patronising the sugar mills owners at the cost of farmers’ interests.

Anjuman Kashtkaran Punajb President Maj Ahsan Taqweem (retired), Punjab Water Council President Farooq Bajwa, Chamber of Agriculture President Sultan Ali Chaudhry, Director General, Agriculture Extension, Dr Anjum Buttar, Deputy Director (Food) Muhammad Husain Khokhar and former Flour Mills Association chairman BilaL Aslam Sufi participated in the discussion which was presided over by KBP head Sardar Zafar Husain.