PTI govt set to buy additional wheat stock

Purchase to fulfil domestic as well as export requirements

ISLAMABAD: The federal government, in close coordination with all four provincial governments, has finalised all arrangements to procure about 8.25 million tons of wheat during its wheat procurement campaign for the year 2019-20 in order to have on hand strategic reserves of the staple grain for both domestic consumption and export. The procurement campaigns will begin on March 15 in Sindh and by next month in Punjab, said a Ministry of National Food Security and Research official.

The official said Sindh would procure about 1.4 million tons of wheat and had established 517 procurement centres in order to facilitate farmers in selling their produce at fixed official rates at their nearest centre. Sack distribution among the growers is to be started by March 15 across all the crop growing areas of Sindh, he said, adding that, besides the provincial food department, Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) would also establish its procurement centres to facilitate growers.

He also said PASSCO would procure about 1.8 million tons of wheat from all across the four provinces and, in that regard, it had also established 233 wheat procurement centres, adding that it had established 17 centres in Sindh, 204 in Punjab and 12 in Balochistan.

He specified that Punjab would procure about 4.5 million tons of wheat, Sindh 1.4 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 0.45 million tons and Balochistan 0.1 million tons during the wheat procurement drive for the year 2019-20.

It is worth mentioning here that the Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research, in its last meeting, had recommended fixing the minimum wheat support price at Rs1,400 per 40 kg to ensure better return for local farmers and encourage them to grow additional wheat to cater to increasing demand.