KARACHI: Farmers have demanded the government to take into account the IMF’s demand to deregulate the prices of wheat and other commodities and end the government-level procurement mechanism.
It should be noted that the government has accepted the condition of IMF not to set the supporting price of all commodities including wheat, sugarcane and cotton and not to purchase at the government level, on which the farmers are demanding from the government while expressing concerns. Farmers should be taken into confidence in this regard, this decision of the government has also threatened the food security of 24 crore people of the country.
On the demand of IMF, the process of setting the support price of wheat is being stopped immediately, while the process of setting the support price of sugarcane, cotton and fertilizers will be abolished within three years, it should be noted that including the US and India. Many countries around the world have a culture of setting support prices, but despite this, the government has surrendered to the IMF, leading to farmers’ anger, and the possibility that farmers will not buy wheat next season. Instead, they will focus on growing other cash crops like sunflower, which will create a wheat production crisis in the country and possibly force the government to import wheat.
It should be remembered that India also took this step in late 2020, as a result of which a large-scale peasant movement was born in India and the Modi government had to withdraw its decision, while talking to The Express Tribune, President Sindhabad Gar. Board Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah said that the government did not consult us in any way.
