KARACHI: The Sindh government on Sunday described the decision to fix the price of a 40 kilo bag of wheat in Punjab at Rs1,800 as an ‘anti-farmer decision’ saying that the decision of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government was a joke with farmers.

Provincial Agriculture Minister Ismail Rahu further said in a statement that Punjab was the largest wheat producing province and if Punjab did not fix the price of wheat at Rs2,000, there would be another wheat crisis.

He claimed that the price of flour in the country would go up further due to the low price of wheat in Punjab.

He said that Sindh had already recommended to the federation to increase the wheat price to Rs2,000 per 40kg bag, otherwise it would create an imbalance in prices.

The provincial minister added that Sindh was also being forced to keep the purchase price low.

He said that the cost of production of wheat had gone up a lot, and the cost of agricultural production had tripled over the past two and a half years.

Farmers and cultivators were suffering from a huge economic crisis, he claimed.

Mr Rahu alleged that the prime minister was benefiting the wheat and flour mafias, while farmers and the country’s agriculture had suffered a lot since Imran Khan came to power.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2021