Pakistan: Peasants’ Struggle Forces Government to Raise Wheat Support Price — A Partial but Significant Victory, says PKRC

when farmers are united and organized, governments are forced to listen. However, he emphasized that PKRC’s longstanding demand remains that the support price should be set at Rs. 4,000 per 40 kg, which reflects the actual cost of production and ensures a fair return for farmers. Farooq Tariq noted that last year, under IMF-imposed austerity and market-driven policies, the government adopted anti-farmer decisions that caused severe financial losses to small and medium-scale producers. Despite the rising cost of inputs — fertilizers, seeds, diesel, and labour — peasant farmers were forced to sell their produce below cost. As a result, wheat cultivation declined by nearly 9 percent this year, posing a direct threat to the country’s food security. “The fixation of a minimum support price is itself proof of the failure of IMF’s neoliberal agricultural framework,” said Tariq. “When agriculture is treated as a profit-making business rather than a source of livelihood and food, the ...