ISLAMABAD, July 15: Minister of State for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan assured the farmers here on Tuesday that the government would suitably increase the support price of wheat for the next crop, according to official source.

The state minister said this while presiding over the annual meeting of the Agricultural Prices Commission’s (APCOM) standing committee on wheat. It was attended by the farmers, crop experts and senior officials concerned with wheat production and its marketing.

The government, he stated, would provide the farmers with incentive prices for their wheat and “now it is their duty to boost production by increasing per acre yield so as to make the country surplus in wheat.”

Measures to reduce the prices of inputs to lower the cost of production were also under consideration of the government, he assured the farmers.

It was also the government’s policy to improve the irrigation system to increase water availability by reducing conveyance losses.

The government, Mr Bosan went on to state, was encouraging the commercial banks to increase credit for agriculture. At the same time, efforts are on to reduce the cost of loans to the farmers and ensure that recovery of loans is effected in such a manner that it provided them sufficient time to dispose of their produce and that they are not forced to sell their produce at throw away prices.

The meeting discussed at length all the important issues concerning wheat crop, producer prices, etc. The farmers brought to the minister’s notice the high prices of inputs like fertilizer, seed, diesel and power tariff, which had gone out of the reach of average farmer. They also complained that the support price of wheat prices had been stagnant for the last four years.

The farmers appreciated the government’s efforts to ensure adherence to the support price of wheat in the last season. They also lauded the government policy of inducting the private sector in wheat marketing and emphasised that this policy should be continued.

But they criticised the recent restrictions on the movement of wheat imposed by the government of Punjab as it would send wrong signal to the private sector.