WE all are aware that food scarcity is a major global concern. Around 42 per cent of Pakistan’s population is directly or indirectly related to agriculture. We cannot deny the fact that if the country is self-sufficient in food, it can handle external and internal crises with more confidence. Unfortunately, the government for the last three consecutive years has miserably failed to give agriculture a proper and confident direction.

We have seen how farmers are being denied the right price for their produce. The prices of fertilisers and pesticides have skyrocketed, and the price of diesel is unprecedentedly high. The state is like a mother to every sector, but farmers feel they are being treated as step-children.

This year, the government has announced a support price of Rs4,500 for 40kg of wheat. The million-dollar question is about the identity of the buyer. Apparently, the government would not be procuring wheat from the farmers who will be at the mercy of the infamous middlemen.

The crushing of sugarcane will start in the third week of November, but, surprisingly, there has been no announce-ment yet regarding the support price for the sugarcane by any provincial govern-ment. As happens every season, sugar mill- owners, representing the strongest of mafias active in Pakistan, are already talking of surplus sugar in stock.

This is surely nothing but a brazen black-mailing technique that they adopt every single year to mentally prepare the farmers that they should not expect any good price.

The relevant government ministry must intervene immediately and instruct all provincial governments to take care of sugarcane farmers, and announce a support price for the upcoming season which should not be less than Rs600 per 40kg.

Kanwar Babar Shahid
Rahim Yar Khan

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2026