SECP proposes national agricultural spot market to improve farm prices, cut crop losses

Profit by Pakistan Today reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has proposed a national agricultural spot market. The digital platform would bring growers, storage operators, lenders and purchasers into one trading system. The regulator hopes this will raise prices at the farm gate, shrink losses after harvest and make borrowing easier for farmers. SECP Chairman Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu unveiled the idea at a Pakistan Institute of Development Economics conference called Mission 100 Billion Dollars.

The framework relies on standardised commodity grades, transparent bidding and electronic warehouse receipts, and farmers could obtain bank loans against stored produce. Provincial governments would keep control of farm market rules, while the SECP would supply the technology. Sidhu cited agriculture's 23.44% share of GDP and crop output valued at around Rs8.8 trillion, and he put post-harvest losses between 20% and 40%. Each percentage point of loss, he said, equals roughly Rs88 billion in economic value.

Storage remains a bottleneck, according to Sidhu, since approved warehouses can hold about 326,000 metric tonnes compared with annual output of around 55.7 million metric tonnes of dry commodities. The platform would start with wheat, rice, maize, cotton and sugar. Separately, he set a goal of 2.5 million investors and planned an awareness drive for young people, simpler account opening and a separate legal framework to supervise audit firms.