Farmers Urge Govt To Fix Wheat, Sugarcane Prices
Published September 06, 2026 | 08:10 PM (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 6th Sep, 2026)
The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has expressed deep concern over the provincial government’s agricultural deregulation policy, arguing it has caused significant financial losses to wheat and sugarcane growers.
According to a statement from a meeting held at their office in Hyderabad on Sunday, chaired by Mahmood Nawaz Shah, the SAB criticized the policy for eliminating official price fixing for wheat and sugarcane crops, leaving farmers vulnerable to middlemen.
They stated:
"This has led to commodities, growers, and consumers being held hostage by cash-rich middlemen and processors."
The board noted a discrepancy between government-reported inflation (29%) and the stagnant prices farmers received for their crops. They claimed input costs continued to rise while crop prices declined.
"The current policy of deregulation is incentivizing cash-rich, exploitative middlemen to buy cheap and sell expensive," said the SAB. They added that the lack of investment in agriculture was a result of this situation, particularly for small and medium-sized farmers.
The meeting demanded competitive markets be established and exports/imports opened to make deregulation acceptable. However, they acknowledged complete deregulation wasn’t feasible in Pakistan at present and called for the government to continue fixing support prices for farmers.
Specifically, they requested:
- Sugarcane price fixed at Rs 525 per 40 kilograms
- Wheat price fixed at Rs4,500 per 40 kg
Dr. Zulfiqar Yousfani, Syed Nadeem Shah, Dr. Bashir Nizamani, Malook Nizamani, Aslam Mari, Imran Bozdar, Taha Memon, and Syed Salman Shah attended the meeting.
