ISLAMABAD, Sept 6: The federal food ministry has sought prime minister’s intervention for timely fixing of wheat support price for 2008-09 crop and for checking unbridled smuggling of wheat and urea to neighbouring countries.

Faced with a threat of steep decline in wheat sowing area this year, the ministry has requested the prime minister to fix a minimum of Rs1,000 per 40 kg support price for the coming wheat crop later this month or in the first week of October, a top official of the food ministry told Dawn on Saturday.

The prime minister heads the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet which fixes the support and issue price of wheat.

Wheat sowing would start from October in arid areas of the country and the food ministry believes that only a justified wheat support price, that should not be less than the market price, could attract farmers to wheat sowing and enable Pakistan to achieve, or at least reach close to, the 24 million tons wheat production target for the next crop.

The ministry has also made it clear that last year’s support price of Rs625 per 40 kg may not be acceptable to farmers, and they may not be tempted or forced to sell their crop to the government at half of the market rate by imposing Section 144 or resorting to other legal and administrative measures.

The food ministry also informed the prime minister about reasons behind smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan, Iran, India and some central Asian states and how smuggling of food items from Pakistan has turned out to be a most lucrative business over the last one year.

The food ministry has also informed the prime minister about the growing trend of smuggling of Pakistan’s urea to neighbouring countries and even beyond that over the last few months.

The official said that paramilitary forces have miserably failed to prevent smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan and some other neighbouring countries due to around 43 per cent difference in the price of the commodity.

Urea price in Pakistan hovers around $180, while in the neighbouring countries the rate of the fertiliser has touched the figure of $800 per ton.

Pakistan produces 4.8 million tons of urea, while the country’s requirement is around 5.6 million, leaving a gap of 0.8 million tons in supply and demand which is met through imports.

The landed cost of imported wheat is between Rs1200 to Rs1400 per 40 kg, and if local farmers are not given support price according to market rates, they may switch over to rice and sun-flower sowing.

The ministry has also recommended that prices of agriculture inputs, including fertiliser and pesticides, should not be increased from the existing level.