Govt approves wheat policy 2025-26, sets price at Rs3,500 per 40kg

• PM Shehbaz says govt consulted all stakeholders.
• Says policy aims to ensure farmers’ profits.
• Wheat policy fails to meet farmers’ expectations.
  

The federal government has approved the Wheat Policy 2025–26, setting the official procurement price for wheat at Rs3,500  per maund (40 kilogrammes).

The policy approval came during a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday.

The chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and Gilgit-Baltistan, a representative of KP chief minister, prime minister of Azad Kashmir, and other relevant stakeholders attended the meeting.

The meeting was informed that the new policy is aligned with the international wheat import prices. Under the policy, the farmers will get a fair price and the government will procure strategic reserves to ensure stable stocks.

There would be no restrictions on the inter-provincial movement of wheat, ensuring its availability nationwide. It was further shared that the federal minister for national food security will chair a national committee responsible for overseeing wheat monitoring. 

The committee will include representatives from all the provinces and will supervise the implementation and coordination of policy measures. It will convene weekly and report directly to the prime minister.

The federal and provincial governments will obtain strategic reserves of about 6.2 million tonnes from the 2025-26 wheat crop. The procurement will be done at Rs 3,500 per maund, as per the international import price of wheat.

PM Shehbaz said the federal government consulted all stakeholders, including the provincial governments, farmers' bodies, industrialists and growers.

“Based on the consultation, the government is announcing the National Wheat Policy 2025-26. The policy aims to ensure farmers’ profits while protecting public interests,” the prime minister added.

“Wheat is not only the staple food of the people of Pakistan but also the biggest source of income for the country’s farmers,” he said.

However, the Rs3,500 per 40 kg rate announced by the federal government fails to meet farmers’ expectations, given the soaring cost of production. Moreover, it is merely an indicative price, meaning farmers are likely to receive around Rs3,000 from private buyers, The News reported.

The real crisis for Pakistani wheat farmers remains the unbearable cost of production, which is among the highest in the region, estimated between Rs2,800 and Rs3,400 per 40kg for the average farmer, and even higher for some.

This cost disparity becomes clearer when compared to India, where the estimated cost of wheat production ranges between PKR 2,200 and Rs2,250 per 40 kg. The key reason lies in input prices: in India, the government fixes the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for fertilisers at much lower rates, around Rs1,200 per 50 kg bag of urea and Rs4,500 per 50 kg of DAP, compared to Pakistan’s staggering Rs4,600 and Rs14,700 respectively.