Open AccessPrice Responsiveness of Marketed Surplus of Wheat in Pakistan
Author(s) -
Sarfraz Khan Qureshi
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v13i2pp.115-128
Subject(s) - agriculture , economics , agricultural economics , production (economics) , consumption (sociology) , food processing , food prices , food security , microeconomics , food science , geography , social science , chemistry , sociology , archaeology
The crucial role of the marketed surplus of food grains in theprocess of development has been generally recognized. Knowledge of thedeterminants of the marketed quantities of food is essential fordesigning price and tax policies for the agricultural sector. Thisknowledge is required for estimating the food availability for the urbansector and for forecasting the required level of food-grains imports inany one year. In the case of crops which are wholly or almost whollymarketed the elasticities of output and market supply can be regarded asapproximately equal. But in the case of crops a substantial part ofwhose output is retained by peasants for self consumption, theresponsiveness of the marketed surplus must be meas¬ured separately fromthe responsiveness of output. Food crops in Pakistan constitute a majorpart of farm production and almost sixty per cent of grain output is.consumed by farm families themselves. In this paper, some estimates ofthe price elasticity of market supply for the major food crop inPakistan are generated. Implications for food grains price policy arethen drawn.