Farmers demand surplus sugar export, Rs5,000 wheat support price

According to Business Recorder, farmer organisations asked the government on Tuesday to allow exports of surplus sugar and fix a minimum wheat purchase price of Rs5,000 per maund for the coming crop. Speaking at a press conference in Lahore, Pakistan Kissan Ittehad president Khalid Mahmood Khokhar said sowing was about to begin without any announced wheat policy. He added that farmers were cutting back on balanced fertiliser, with DAP use falling from 2.39 million tons to 1.25 million tons because growers lack funds.

Khokhar said agriculture and farmers were not among the government's priorities, calling wheat the backbone of the sector. He pledged that growers would produce record wheat output if they received international market rates, pointing to past years when good prices led to high production. On sugar, he said cane cultivation had risen 16 percent on 2.454 million acres, with output expected to climb 25 to 30 percent this year.

The farm leaders want authorities to hold back enough sugar for domestic consumption until November and export the remainder, warning that losses on one harvest would spill into the three crops after it. Mahmood-ul-Hassan Bukhari said the government had failed to make timely decisions and asked why surplus sugar was not being exported, adding that farmers would not sow wheat without a clear wheat policy.