LAHORE: The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) has urged the federal government to declare an agricultural emergency and introduce an effective wheat procurement and marketing mechanism, saying that fixing the wheat price at a viable level could help revive the entire agriculture sector and improve the national economy.

Welcoming the proposed wheat support price of Rs4,500 per 40kg here on Wednesday, PKI president Khalid Khokhar said farmers had been suffering losses in wheat cultivation for the past three years, while the recent price proposal had provided them with a ray of hope.

He said the wheat price should reflect the actual cost of production, adding that a reasonable support price would also help improve the financial position of growers cultivating sugarcane, potato, rice and peas. `We are grateful to the prime minister for considering a reasonable wheat price. This will not only benefit farmers but also help strengthen Pakistan`s economy,` he said.

Khokhar warned that noods, droughts and changingrainfallpatterns caused by climate change are likely to create serious challenges for global agriculture, potentially affecting the availability of wheat in international markets next year.He urged the government to build strategic wheat stocks and ensure procurement directly from farmers to safeguard national food security. He also appealed to the Punjab chief minister to introduce a transparent mechanism for wheat sales, saying that an effective marketing system was essential to protect growers from market volatility and ensure fair returns on theirproduce.

Referring to the declining use of agricultural inputs, Khokhar said DAP fertiliser consumption in Pakistan had fallen from 2.3 million tonnes to 1.2m tonnes, reflecting the financial difficulties being faced by farmers.

He noted that growers who had sold wheat at around Rs3,500 per 40kg are now witnessing market prices exceeding Rs5,000, highlighting the need for a stable and transparent pricing policy.

He said agriculture is a subsidised sector across the world, but Pakistan continues to face major challenges despite being an agrarian economy. The country was importing edible oil, wheat, cotton and pulses, exposing weaknesses in domestic production and agricultural planning, he added.

He pointed out that Pakistan allocated only 0.18pc of its budget to agricultural research, compared with 1.16pc in Brazil, and called for increased investment in research, modern technology and climate-resilient farming.