Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Mukhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar said that the top priority for the government is meeting the challenge of food security in the country to ensure there is no wheat storage.
The above was stated in a press release on Wednesday, wherein Bakhtyar said that the government is fully committed to meet the rising challenge of food security and enhancing agricultural productivity.
In this effort, the Agriculture Emergency Program has been launched at an estimated cost of Rs275 billion, and the government has also increased the support price of wheat by 27 per cent to incentivize farmers for enhanced production of wheat.
According to the statement, the country’s wheat demand for the current year stands at 27.6 million metric tonnes, while the production stands at 25.8 MMT. In this regard, the government has decided to import the remaining 2.2 MMT to bridge the demand-supply gap and protect price stability in the market.
In the previous year, Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation and the Punjab government had helped bridge the wheat gap, wherein PASSCO supplied 0.5 MMT to the government of Sindh as it fell short of its procurement target of 1.2 MMT.
Wheat crops are harvested in two months, and these harvests are used to supply the public’s demands throughout the year. Both federal and provincial governments bear the expense of yearly carrying cost of public wheat stock, including mark-up, storage and incidental costs.
This has helped maintain wheat support price during the preceding four years at a stagnant Rs1,300/40 kg.
It is estimated that the current year’s subsidy expenditure on local wheat has been Rs66 billion. Furthermore, in order to keep the prices of the imported million metric tonnes of wheat competitive with locally procured wheat, the government will have to bear a cost of about Rs29 billion.
The press release also stated that the media reports regarding the export of 5.5 MMT wheat during 2018-19 are factually incorrect and clarified that only 0.59 MMT wheat was exported during that period.
It added that 2.1 MMT was exported in the year 2017-2018. During the period 2009-19, a total of 9 MMT of wheat was exported, while imports were about 1.2 MMT.
The agriculture sector’s growth during the period 2013-18 has been very marginal as crop sector only grew on average 0.4 per cent while consumption increased at a higher pace, leading to a decrease of availability from 140kg/capita to 124kg/capita.
The federal cabinet on Tuesday had a heated debate on the fixation of support price for the upcoming crop of wheat as ministers offered a divided opinion over the issue.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Nadeem Afzal Chan, and at least three other federal ministers, had supported the idea for raising the price of wheat to Rs1,800 to prevent a decline in wheat production next year.
Federal Minister Sheikh Rasheed had opposed fixing the price, fearing skyrocketing prices in two months’ time.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had chaired the meeting, had said that he would take steps to ensure that there was no crisis in wheat and flour and would take concrete steps to reduce inflation.
