Pakistan Kissan Ittehad calls on govt to restore wheat support price at Rs4,702

According to Dawn, the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) has warned of a possible three-million-tonne wheat shortfall before the Rabi season. Such a gap could require roughly $1.2 billion in foreign exchange for imports unless policy action comes quickly. PKI president Khalid Mahmood Khokhar also said three years of ineffective policies left farmers with a Rs2,200bn loss.

Citing the Gulf conflict, Hormuz shipping problems and the Russia-Ukraine war for higher diesel and tube-well power costs, the group wants the wheat support price restored to Rs4,702 per 40 kg. It says that figure, which includes a standard 25 per cent margin, is needed to return fallow acreage to farming and reach 31 million tonnes. The PKI also wants the prime minister and national food security minister to announce procurement policy by month end.

On fertiliser, PKI wants any subsidy to be nutrient-based and to cover all phosphatic products, not only DAP. Referring to the March 2022 ECC decision covering every phosphatic grade, it said nearly 80 per cent of farmers use alternatives such as Nitrophos, TSP, SSP, MAP, NP/NPS and NPKs. It warned that DAP-only relief could fuel black-market activity and unnecessary DAP imports, while local supplies of other phosphatic fertilisers are already adequate for the 2026-27 crop cycle.