LAHORE, April 14: The Punjab on Friday recommended new support prices for three major crops and demanded that the federal government should give fiscal relief to farmers on all of these.

The Provincial Cost of Production Committee, which met here on Thursday, calculated increase in production cost of cotton, rice and maize and recommended a raise in their support prices. It noted that the cost of production for growers had gone up on three accounts: petroleum, fertiliser and implements.

According to a participant, the committee recommended increase in seed cotton support price up to Rs1,225 per 40kg against Rs975 of last year, though the actual price of cotton in the open market remained between Rs1,050 and Rs1,150.

A raise in support price was necessary, said Ibrahim Mughal, an agriculture expert from Lahore, because of numerous factors. The crop provided the biggest chunk of exports to the country. Although it had provided some relief to growers when its prices went way above the officially declared support, it still needed a leap to maintain its fiscal promise, he said.

If market price was a benchmark, the committee had recommended only an increase of Rs75 which should not be a problem for the decision-makers because by doing so, they would compensate farmers in a big way, he maintained.

The committee also proposed an increase of Rs44 in the support price of basmati — a fine variety of rice. Last year, the price of basmati was Rs690 per 40kg which the committee had asked to raise up to Rs734 this year. Again, the increase was recommended owing to the same three factors.

According to Amanullah Chattha of the Kissan Board Pakistan, the raise is necessitated because of substantial increase in the cost of production for farmers. It is also because of market realities that have failed to provide necessary relief to farmers.

Though the support price was Rs690 per 40kg last year, the actual price that farmers got ranged between Rs520 and Rs580.

He said the policy planners were now aiming to increase export from the last year’s $1.6 billion to $2 billion this year. This was only possible if they provide some relief to growers in order to ensure substantial increase both in acreage and yield.