QUETTA: Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Sikandar Hayat Bosan has said that the government will not increase the wheat support price this year to control price hike in the country but he assured growers that the support price will be increased next year.

Speaking at a farmers’ convention in Dera Allahyar town of Jaffarabad district on Thursday, he said the government had decided to procure the entire wheat crops to save growers from financial losses.

Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, former federal minister Mir Changez Khan Jamali and Agriculture Research Council of Pakistan chairman Iftikhar Ahmed also spoke.

Mr Bosan said the government was aware of problems and financial difficulties being faced by growers and that it was taking steps to resolve them.

He said the government was preparing a new agriculture policy which would be announced soon. For the new policy, he added, many incentives had been suggested for the agriculture sector.