K-P govt to raise wheat storage capacity by purchasing stock directly

Capacity of warehouses will be increased to 600,000 tons from current 400,000 tons

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government is planning to raise the capacity of wheat storages to nearly 600,000 tons aimed at providing edible wheat at affordable rates even in a crisis-like situation.

“Presently, the storage space with K-P is 400,000 tons, which will be raised to 600,000 tons in accordance with the Planning Commission’s decision taken in the wake of wheat crisis in the country in 2008,” a senior official in the food department told APP on Wednesday.

Under the 100-day plan, the K-P government has formulated a comprehensive food policy to increase wheat and other agricultural production by giving special incentives to growers and farmers to cater to food requirements of an ever-growing population.

Under the policy, the government would purchase wheat stock directly from growers to provide them full economic and financial benefits. Any farmer or grower producing at least 500 tons of wheat would take benefit of this policy and would get maximum profit compared to sales in the open market.

This policy would help end the commission culture and the role of middlemen and all growers would get direct financial benefits under the policy prepared by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government after consultation with all stakeholders.

K-P is a wheat-deficient province and is prone to crisis-like situations in case of any disruption in the smooth flow of supply of the commodity and its products from Punjab. The official said the province’s normal wheat requirement is about 4.421 million tons, against which about 1.134 million tons are being produced locally, leaving a shortfall of 3.287 million tons per annum.

To cater to people’s requirements, the food department is planning to construct new warehouses and expand the already established warehouses to store additional 0.821 million tons in the province.

To achieve food department’s targets, food grains storages in Swat, Batagram and Abbottabad would be built. The K-P government has allocated Rs472 million for 18 projects, out of which 13 are ongoing with allocation of Rs322 million and five new projects with allocation of Rs150 million during fiscal year 2018-19.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2018.

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