PRICES of milk, cooking oil, ghee, wheat, sugar, egg, meat and grains have seen a tremendous increase during the past few years — mainly because of shortages.

Experts in livestock and agriculture development are of the view that grain, meat and poultry rates would continue to rise until the government develops the sector on scientific lines, aimed at increasing the productivity of farm produce to get improved supplies of food grains and other raw material for the industry (i.e. sugarcane, seed-cotton, hides, furs, nuts and by products, etc).

The country is currently facing a wheat flour crisis, and there are indications that the shortage may persist till the availability of a new crop by March next year. In the meantime, it is feared, the price situation may further aggravate unless steps are taken to check hoarding and smuggling.

A comparison of atta prices between utility stores and the open market reveals that in the latter, it is available for Rs240 per 10kgs in Karachi (and even Rs280 in some other parts of the country), whereas the price at utility stores is Rs130 per 10kgs.

At the utility stores, long queues of consumers endure a tiresome wait for hours together to purchase a bag of atta. But the government is in no charitable mood. Consumers must buy sugar, ghee and other items along with atta.

Sikandar, a driver by profession, said while the government’s approach is to facilitate consumers through utility stores, in practice it is a tormenting exercise these days to purchase a product from a utility store.

A number of people, especially women who went through a back-breaking wait at the USCs at Gizri, Saudabad, Khokhrapar, Korangi, Shah Faisal Colony, complained that they had been unable to get atta even after standing in queue the entire day.

There had been a crisis of sugar in the past. Although sugar is available in the market, there is a sharp difference in its price in the market and at a store.

Currently, there is a cotton shortage, and prices have affected the industry’s profitability.

Actually prices of agriculture produce, poultry and dairy products increased substantially during the past five years owing to wrong policies of the government, which concentrated on the development of infrastructure in urban centres, and at the cost of 60 per cent rural populace of the country, said Fayaz, an agriculture graduate who works at a livestock-related business concern.

A glance at the political parties’ manifestos showed that they want to achieve progress and prosperity by helping farmers raise agriculture output.

The PPP manifesto says agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. It claims to be a farmer-friendly party, and pledges to help farmers boost production and obtain fair prices. It claimed that farmers got the best prices when the PPP was in government.

“The key to agriculture exportable surpluses is to augment output per acre and productivity per farmer.”

“Aggressive agriculture and rural development will be another central pillar of growth and poverty reduction strategy. Farm-to-market roads will be put in place to ensure that perishable and valuable agriculture products, fruits vegetable and milk can reach markets.”

It says that banks would be encouraged to expand rural lending.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement plans to help farmers boost their income. It wants abolition of the feudal system; effective land reforms fixing a reasonable ceiling; increasing share of cultivators (Haris / Muzareh) from 50 to 60 per cent; district level micro-finance credit on Grameen Bank patron; tractor and small agriculture machinery on subsidised prices; cooperative farming and more importance would be attached to direct marketing to eliminate the role of middle-men, subsidy on major food items.

The PML-N has proposed steps to control inflation as prices of most essential items have registered a rise ranging between 80 and 150 per cent over the past eight years. It is of the view that inflation has become one of the most serious problems for the common man, partly due to result of a liquidity-driven and a consumption-based growth strategy under which the unprecedented inflow of external resources after 9/11 has gone into real estate, the stock market and large-scale consumer financing by the banks.

“At the same time, the relative neglect of agriculture has created serious shortages of different commodities at different times in the country, and did not allow adequate supply response to the growing demand created by excess liquidity.

The PML-N promises to tackle this back-breaking problem through a multi-pronged strategy by giving top priority to the agriculture sector and within agriculture to high value and minor crops, like fruits, vegetables, pulses, vegetable oil and spices. PML(N) says it will pay special attention to food prices, which have more than doubled in the past eight years to ensure that items like wheat, rice, sugar and edible oils are available to the common man at reasonable prices.

The manifesto of the PML-Q says little about land reforms, but the party claims that new initiatives proposed in the PML charter were “doable and poor-friendly”. For instance, it claims it has plans for disabled, youth, women, teachers, prisoners, senior citizens, widows and orphans, as well as journalists, artists, poets and writers, and overseas Pakistanis.

It aims to launch a village development initiative for integrated development of rural communities, promoting self reliance through a skill promotion trust, giving access to easily available small loans for persons keen to transform their skills for generating income on self help basis as well as revolutionary programme for provision of “low cost housing under what is termed as cheap homes initiative.

It is hoped that all these proposals, if implemented, would offset the burden of price spiral in the country or may result in bringing down prices, especially food items.