Punjab Government’s wheat policy has started proving disastrous for farmers, with a risk of a PKR 564 billion loss in the open market for Punjab’s farmers, and a PKR 284 billion loss for farmers in South Punjab. Middlemen, commission agents, and flour mill owners are set to pocket billions, as farmers have labeled the bureaucracy of Punjab as farmer-unfriendly.
The Punjab Government has set the wheat support price at PKR 3900 per maund for 2024. Under this policy, the government has decided to buy 15 maunds of wheat per acre from farmers cultivating wheat on up to 6 acres. This policy is proving to be disastrous according to the given figures. Currently, wheat is cultivated on 16.4 million acres across Punjab, with an average yield of 50 maunds per acre, leading to a production of approximately 30.61 million tons. At the support price, this would value at PKR 3198 billion, while at PKR 3000 per maund, the value would be PKR 2460 billion. However, according to the Punjab Agriculture Department, Punjab produced 25.6 million tons of wheat this year, equating to 685.88 million maunds. At the support price, this is valued at PKR 2674.94 billion. The Punjab Food Department has been given a target to purchase 2.2 million tons of wheat, which is about 8.59% of the total production, amounting to approximately PKR 229.88 billion worth of wheat purchases, leaving 23.4 million tons of wheat remaining, valued at approximately PKR 2445.06 billion at the support price, but only PKR 1880.82 billion at an average market price of PKR 3000 per maund. Thus, the government’s own figures show that farmers across Punjab are forced to sell 91% of their production at PKR 900 less than the support price, causing a loss of approximately PKR 564.24 billion to Punjab’s farmers compared to the support price.
In South Punjab, where wheat is cultivated on 6.8 million acres—approximately 41.46% of Punjab’s total wheat-cultivated area—the production is about 12.69 million tons. The Food Department’s target for wheat purchases in Punjab translates to approximately 912,195 tons from South Punjab, which is about 7.19% of its total wheat production and about 41.46% of the department’s total target. After these purchases, about 11.78 million tons of wheat will remain in South Punjab. At a support price of PKR 3900 per maund, this remaining wheat is valued at approximately PKR 1230.68 billion, and at PKR 3000 per maund, it would be approximately PKR 946.68 billion. The difference between these values is about PKR 284 billion, meaning South Punjab’s farmers will suffer a loss of PKR 284 billion due to the Punjab Government’s wheat policy, with this amount going into the pockets of middlemen, commission agents, and flour mill owners.
The federal and Punjab governments have not managed to protect Punjab’s farmers from being exploited by fertilizer companies over the past decade. Poor and medium-scale farmers have not benefited from the subsidies provided on fertilizers, which have instead gone to the owners of fertilizer factories and those involved in the black market, with the large landowning elite reaping the most benefits. Similarly, farmers have suffered heavy losses in corn crops, while sugarcane has been bought at rock-bottom prices by sugar mill owners, even below the support price. The majority of Punjab’s small and medium-scale farmers believe that the current bureaucracy in Punjab and the federal government, particularly the Finance Department, is extremely harsh towards farmers and is being held hostage by a handful of middlemen, commission agents, and owners of agricultural industries (flour mills, sugar mills, rice mills, textile industry owners), and import and export lobbies, which also dominate political parties. There is no one in the assemblies to raise the voice of the farmers, nor is there any reaction from political parties to the devastation facing the farmers.
