Does Free Market Mechanism Offer a Win-Win Situation to Wheat Consumers and the Government?

Abstract

Wheat is the most important agricultural crop of Pakistan. It is grown by 80 percent of farmers and planted on about 22 million acres, which is approximately 40 percent of the country’s total cultivated land. Punjab plays a major role in wheat production by allocating 16.14 million acres (71.5 percent), followed by Sindh, KPK and Balochistan with almost same trends in production also (AMIS, 2020). Wheat also contributes 37 percent to both food energy and protein intakes. Being a staple food, it accounts 72 percent to the food basket of Pakistan, with the highest per capita consumption of 124 kg per person per annum in the world.