Wheat Crisis

 Wheat rates have plummeted in the market, and are much below the support price of Rs3,900 per 40kg, with the decision to import wheat despite a local “bumper crop” being blamed.

The crisis saw the farmers resort to protest in Lahore and several other cities last month, followed by the government launching a crackdown against the protests.

The Shabaz Sharif government is reluctant to investigate the crisis. However, a cabinet committee has been constituted to ascertain why the last caretaker government, led by then-PM Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar, imported the commodity despite an ample supply in the country.

Khokhar said that the “mafia” made Rs100bn off the wheat import, while farmers lost approximately Rs400bn because they had to sell their wheat at lower rates. “The government lost another Rs150bn due to interest on the surplus wheat they did not sell,” Khokhar added.

He warned that when farmers are suffering financially, it affects other crops such as rice and cotton. “If farmers have no money, how will they invest in other crops?”

“We bought everything on the black market,” Khokhar continued, saying that farmers spent Rs150bn on urea for wheat cultivation — which he claimed was greater than the market price. “Urea is still in the black, even though demand is low”, Khokhar said.

“Where was the state when they said they would protect farmers?” Khokhar asked. “Those who sit in power do not make the right decisions.”

Quoting urea as an example, he said there are five different rates for the commodity due to a lack of government regulation.

Khokhar said that the Kissan Ittehad would lead nationwide protests against the government’s wheat policy. “We will start in Multan on May 10 and carry on across the country from there,” he said. “There will be thousands of farmers, along with their livestock and families.”

“I don’t want to protest because it causes inconveniences to the people,” he said. “But the state does not think farmers are important.”

“Our only goal is to extend relief. Without agriculture, we are nothing,” he stated.

Responding to a question that the excessive wheat imports caused a Rs400 billion loss to the exchequer, the former interim premier said such allegations were akin to “inspector Jamshed stories that he heard in his childhood”.

The federal government has been caught in a fix as the Balochistan and Punjab governments are unable to purchase wheat from farmers due to a surplus in stock which, so far, is being attributed to excessive import of the crop.

Due to the non-purchase of wheat by the provincial governments, wheat is being sold at a lower price than the official rate — a matter of grave concern for the farmers.

Sources told Geo News that the Ministry of National Food Security had apprised PM Shehbaz's cabinet that 28.18 million tonnes of wheat was produced last year and the caretaker government decided to import 2.45 million tonnes more.

The premier was also told that the additional wheat import caused a loss of more than Rs300 billion to the national exchequer.