Punjab Assembly: Opposition demands govt raise wheat purchase target

Raja Riaz says wheat policy will result in more calls for separate south province.

LAHORE:

The opposition in the Punjab Assembly on Monday demanded that the government increase its wheat purchase targets and warned that its current policy would cause anger among farmers from southern Punjab.

The PA session was called by the opposition to discuss the government’s wheat purchase policy. Food Minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor started the discussion by telling the assembly that the wheat purchase target was four millions tons. The government had set up 375 procurement centres across the province to buy wheat from farmers. The government would give eight gunny bags for one acre. He said that the Punjab had exported 900,000 tons of wheat and was looking to export more of its 2.5 million tons in stock. He said that the wheat harvest was expected to be around 18 million tons.

He said that the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation, a federal department, would also purchase wheat. He said that the government had deployed its revenue staff at the procurement centres and started to distribute the gunny bags.

Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz said that each gunny bag could carry 2.5 maunds, or 100kg, which meant the Punjab government would buy only 800kg of wheat per acre. He said that on average, each acre in Punjab yielded 1,600-1,800kg. He said that the government should buy 16 gunny bags per acre.

He said that government policy had allowed middle men to come in and purchase wheat from farmers at low rates at harvest time and then sell it on to the government at the fixed support price. He said that the government should give MPAs more influence in procurement rather than empower district coordination officers.

Riaz said that if the government did not buy the entire crop from farmers, they would feel ever more disenfranchised. This effect might be particularly damaging in south Punjab, he said, where there was a growing demand for a separate province. He said the government should start its purchases in south Punjab because harvesting had started in the region.

Mohsin Leghari of the PML-Quaid said that Punjab faced a Rs70 billion loss because of the low purchase target. He said that 17 million acres in Punjab were under cultivation. If each acre yielded 1,200kg, then around 22.5 million tons should be on the market. He said the government was planning to purchase only 15 per cent of the total yield, meaning 85 per cent would be wasted or purchased by middlemen at low rates.

He said that traders were buying wheat at Rs800 per 40kg, while the official rate was Rs950 per 40kg. They were also under weighing produce by 2.5 kg per 40 kg, he said, and farmers were unable to do anything about it.

Malik Waris Kallu of the PML-Nawaz said that the Sindh government had banned the entry into the province of wheat from Punjab to prevent its export from Karachi, which was “shameful”.

Saeed Akbar Niwani of the PML-N said that the Punjab government would purchase the amount of wheat that the federal government paid for. He said this year the federal government gave the Punjab Rs85 billion for the purchase of wheat.

He said that the federal government had last year given the province Rs130 billion to buy wheat, including 2.5 million tons to stock as strategic reserves. This year, he said, the Centre had asked the Punjab to stock only 500,000 tons.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2011.