This wheat season has turned out even more punishing for farmers than the last. Buyers are scarce, and market prices have plunged to around Rs2,200-2,300 per maund — far below production costs and nearly half the support price announced for the two crops of 2023 and 2024. Even more concerning, Punjab’s harvest — accounting for nearly 75 per cent of national production — has yet to peak. It’s a bitter reversal of the optimism generated by the Punjab Chief Minister’s grand promises during the sowing season.

Last year, despite Punjab’s exit from procurement, the federal government — along with Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan — collectively procured around three million tonnes of wheat. This intervention provided some cushion to prices. This year, the situation has deteriorated right at the beginning of crop harvesting. In a rush to comply with International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions, both federal and provincial governments abruptly withdrew from procurement — without a clear strategy or transition plan. This has resulted in a policy failure at multiple levels.

First, in previous years, the government used to procure around 5-7m tonnes — nearly half of the marketable surplus left after meeting the consumption needs of farming households and rural communities. The government’s sudden withdrawal has developed a vacuum in the market.

It neither introduced any alternative market-based procurement mechanism nor facilitated large private........

© Dawn Business