Daily Times

Jalal Khan, a progressive farmer, who achieved bumper wheat crop this season seemed upset after hearing news on print and social media about looming wheat prices crisis and started visiting different bazaars to know about actual prices of the commodity as well as makeshift godwons for its storage to avert possible financial loss this season.

“I came to Firdus wheat storage market to know about prices of wheat which was very low this season compared to last year in KP and the only viable option left with me these days to purchase five makeshift wheat godwons to store my 100 KG surplus wheat, hoping to sell it once prices of the commodity soar in open market,” said Nowshera born graduate farmer Jalal wearing in traditional turban. “The farmers of KP require prices of wheat to be well in excess of Rs 4,000 per 40 kilograms bag to make a reasonable profit. However, the local and international prices were recently recorded as low as Rs 2,500 per bag meaning by Rs 1500 loss to wheat growers per 40 kilogram bag which added to the worries of thousands of farmers in KP,” he claimed.

“I had invested all my money in wheat harvesting this season and will wait to sell my surplus stock once its prices increase in the local market of Peshawar and Nowshera,” he said and expressed the hope that central and KP governments would help assist thousands of farmers in this difficult situation.

Zilakat Malik, former Chairman Economics Department, University of Peshawar told APP on Friday that the wheat prices crisis was looking more likely because of the poor decisions taken by the caretaker governments and bumper crop this year mostly in Punjab besides gaps in demand-supply chains in international markets.

He said that low international wheat supply means this season that exports would face possible decrease, leaving farmers and relevant government agencies including food departments in provinces to absorb the wheat surplus margin to facilitate its farmers.

Dr Zilakat linked wheat prices crises due to Russian invasion of wheat rich Ukraine, adding the blockage of Ukrainian ports have resulted in global food shortage as Ukraine supplied about 10 percent the world grain supply at the time of attack.

He said Pakistan in the past was arguably most reliant on Ukrainian wheat as it represented about 59 percent of our grain imports and was cost effective for our country.

“The major reason of wheat prices issue in Pakistan was Russia-Ukraine war, which has not only caused wheat prices to rise in our country but also affected supply chain among reginal countries.”

However, some of the increase has been offset by the grain export deal between Russia and Ukraine. He said when this deal was on the verge of expiring last year, Pakistan and other regional importers started building up stocks in advance due to poor decision of the caretakers setup, and that the last year also saw a record amount of land in our country was dedicated to growing of wheat keeping in view of high profit margin compared to other seasonal crops.

The international prices were also adversely affected as Ukraine had developed new export routes and the other countries also had recorded pumper crops.

In this situation, he said that most farmers in KP, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan were now looking towards both federal and provincial governments to set and finance fair control prices in order to provide them with the required profit of their wheat crops.

He claimed that farmers held about four million metric tons wheat this season and now great onus lied on the shoulders of both federal and provincial governments to lift these stocks as quickly as possible and provide due financial packages to the thousands of farmers.

Dr Zialkat Malik said KP Government had mostly complained about lack of wheat quota and wheat transportation problems from Punjab in the past and there was now a great opportunity for KP government to purchase maximum wheat from Punjab to fulfill their people’s requirements this year.

The experts highly lauded the directives of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif to PASCO to start lifting wheat stocks besides raising the procurement limit to record 1.8 million metric tons from 1.4 MMTs that would help address wheat prices issue.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa food department spokesman told APP that 300,000 metric tons of wheat would be purchased from local farmers and the procurement process started.

He said that wheat price was fixed at Rs 3,900 per 40 kilogram and Rs 29 billion were allocated for this purchase.

He said transparent procurement processes were being ensured and negligence would not be tolerated.

The spokesman said effective coordination had been established between the food department and district administration in all 37 districts for smooth completion of wheat purchase process in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The spokesman said that recent torrential rains and climate change- induced weather patterns have delayed the wheat procurement process and surplus wheat would be stored at Govt godowns.

He urged farmers to cooperate with the relevant authorities and approach district food officers in cases of any delay or complaints during the procurement process of wheat.