‘Wheat shortage is artificially created’

Rubbishing reports of the crop's shortage, Sindh Agriculture Minister Muhammad Ismail Rahoo claimed on Friday that the wheat mafia and Centre were "deliberately creating a fake wheat crisis in the country."

Stating that Sindh still had 1.25 million tonnes of wheat in reserve, he said that the reports of a wheat shortage in Punjab were also false.

"This year, 26 million tonnes of wheat has been produced in the country, where the crop's monthly consumption is just 2.1 million tonnes," he said. "[But] like last year, the ATMs of the federal government are deliberately creating a wheat crisis, even when there is enough produce in stock at Sindh's flour mills," he alleged, referring to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders.

Making further calculations, he said that the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) and all provinces collectively had at least 6.8 million tonnes of wheat in stock, in addition to the private sector's 10 million tonnes, against the projected four-month consumption of 15 million tonnes.

Pointing out that it had been just two months past the harvest, Rahoo implied that Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) being gripped by a wheat crisis in this short period was unrealistic. He went on to claim that wheat stock in both provinces was kept hidden by the mafia to give rise to an artificial crisis.

In a veiled reference to PTI members, he said that the wheat mafia constituted same persons who were "sugar thieves, medicine thieves and petrol thieves, earning trillions in the black market." The minister's remark also alluded to the recent hike in the price of sugar, medicines and petroleum products by the federal government.

Rahoo further complained that wheat from Sindh was being transported to Punjab due to the rise in its price in the latter.

"Is the Sindh government responsible for the wheat crisis in Punjab and K-P?" he questioned, criticising the K-P government for failing to achieve even half of its wheat production target. "Besides, the K-P government failed to achieve even five percent of its procurement target, while the PASSCO managed to achieve only 65 per cent of its wheat procurement target, purchasing 1.18 million tonnes of wheat against its aim of 1.8 million," he deplored, adding that the Centre fared even worse.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2020.