Investigating the Government’s Exclusive and Guaranteed Purchase of Wheat during World War II (1941- 1945)

Guaranteed purchase of wheat to achieve self-sufficiency and to support producers and consumers has been one of the policies implemented by the governments since the era of the first Pahlavi. But sometimes not only have those goals not been met, they have had disastrous consequences. World War II was one of the instances in which the government initiated a monopoly and guaranteed purchase of wheat from landowners and farmers to provide the people with the bread at a reasonable price. But in practice this policy was not implemented properly. The purpose of this article is to investigate the government’s exclusive and guaranteed purchase of wheat during World War II and to study the consequences of this policy. A descriptive-analytical approach is used for this purpose. The study argues that the exclusive purchase of wheat by the owners and farmers at cheap prices and selling it to the consumer at subsidized prices was in favor of the urban consumer and disadvantaged the rural producer and the government. Other consequences of this policy include hoarding wheat, prebuying, farmers’ reluctance to grow wheat, migration to cities, famine, high prices, dependence on foreign imports, and the government’s budget deficit.