For once, reports from the federal ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (MINFAL) are positive and encouraging. It is said to be in favour of increasing the support price for wheat. It’s time someone thought of the underpaid farmers and gave them reward for their sweat and toil that at last meets the cost of production.

It is time also that General Musharraf recalled the pledge he had made in his seven-point manifesto after the October 1999 coup for ameliorating the lot of poor farmers. He seemed to have totally forgotten the promise. Not only that. Judging from some of the actions of the government, his administration has been moving in the opposite direction. Enhanced wheat price would not only be fulfilling that promise but it would also serve the government, indeed more than it would benefit farmers.

The current price is Rs300 for 40 kg of wheat. It was fixed when much of the crop had been cultivated. However, there was the next season and the decision proved instrumental in providing the country with a bumper crop, high yield that is still a buffer, wafer thin though it has become, against importing wheat for meeting food needs. From the look of things and view of the stocks, the danger of imports has not been averted.

Some recent provincial (Punjab) and federal government decisions indirectly concede that the picture is not green even if its colours are not yet screaming red. The rising price of flour in the market is evidence that all is not well on the wheat front.

The price rise in ‘ 99 provided a hope to farmers and it proved that decently treated, it can produce miracles. The positive impact of the decision was to be seen in every field and the result justified the move with an unprecedented crop of about 22 million tons.

While price enhancement was an important, in fact, vital factor, other interventions were also made; they paid rich dividends. The cotton crop was terminated on time to ensure that wheat was cultivated by November 15 to avoid late sowing that results in loss of yield. The schedule must be followed if the best is to be obtained from wheat fields.

In the rice-wheat regions, zero tillage was harnessed. It does not involve intensive plowing of fields over a longish period of time. That helped raise produce as on time sowing of crop was augmented by availability of residual moisture in the fields to nourish plants at the generating stage.

It is three years since the last raise in wheat support price. One cannot say that much water has flown from under the bridges since water has been in short supply but prices of inputs have certainly escalated over time; the cost of wheat cultivation has risen by quite a few points.

Fertilizer has become more expensive. Water from tube wells carried heavy bills. Mercifully, the Punjab government has realized the situation and provided relief to farmers on this count. The price of diesel has been relentlessly moving up. The cost of living has gone up for farmers too. They have needs like every other citizen but howsoever hard they worked, the prevailing price gave them no chance to balance investment with income from fields. A flawed-to-corrupt procurement system left them high and dry.

The result has been decline in wheat produce during the last two years. Whatever the production statistics of MINFAL, there is no denying the fact that wheat produce has been on a slide down. And the farmer, the backbone of Pakistan’s agriculture-based economy, has been more impoverished notwithstanding the fact that the government claims to be paying greater attention to poverty alleviation.

A raise in the support price of wheat has more potential for countering poverty among rural people than many poverty reduction governmental schemes. It should also go a long way towards sustaining self-sufficiency in wheat that was attained after the last enhancement of price.

Conditions for higher produce were difficult three year back. A lot has changed since then, though for both better and worse. The good has happened despite lack of specific and sympathetic policies for the agriculture sector. Farmers have been constrained to look around for ways and means to improve productivity and obtain a better deal for themselves. Some developments and the help of some agencies have created a favourable climate for improvement.

Laser levelling and zero tillage have caught on. The two technologies are farmer friendly and resource conserving as they save their time in the fields and reduce a reasonable percentage of the cost of investment. They also enable farmers to obtain higher yields from their land.

If high wheat produce is the government’s target,as it should be, more would be required to be done than enhancing the support price. Cotton crop would need to be removed early so that wheat is cultivated by November 15 and farmers would have to be assured of guaranteed sale of their produce, that is ensure a fair and equitable procurement system.

But first of all an official announcement of higher support price must be made at the earliest to revive the sagging confidence of farmers. The time since the last raise has been tough for them and unless there is a concrete positive development, it would be difficult to motivate them. They must be provided tangible relief and assured that it would reach them. That is the most important prerequisite for enlisting the farming community’s support and attaining food security and must be done without loss of time.