Wheat procurement target set at 1.4m tons

Cabinet informed that procurement at centres will start by mid-February

KARACHI:

The Sindh Cabinet decided on Thursday to set the wheat procurement target at 1.4 million tons at Rs4,000 per 40kg. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah chaired the meeting at the the CM House which was attended by provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Planning & Development Chairman Hassan Naqvi, Principal Secretary to CM Fayaz Jatoi and other officers.

Sindh Food Minister Mukesh Chawla said that the wheat crop for the upcoming season was estimated at four million tons even though the land was damaged by heavy rains and floods. The government has already fixed Rs4,000 per 40kg as a support price, he said. After fixing the procurement target, the procurement at the centres would start from the second week of the current month.

Chawla said that around 0.4 million tons carry-over stock of gunny bags (or bardana) was available with the food department. At this, the CM directed him to use the available bardana for procurement in the early-harvest regions of Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad. The food minister said that one million polypropylene bags would be procured to meet the requirement of the target of 1.4mt of wheat.

Murad, while giving policy guidelines to the food department, said that wheat should be procured from growers on a first-come first-serve basis. The baradna should be issued to the growers. Climate resilient agriculture Advisor to CM Manzoor Wassan, while briefing the cabinet about transforming the Indus Basin through climate resilient agriculture and water management, said that its objective was to strengthen institutional and regulatory systems for climate-responsiveness, especially in the water sector.

He added that climate information would be generated to use in response to climate disasters and decision-making. The farming community's adaptive capacity would be enhanced along with creating awareness of the climate change threats and risk reduction among them, Wassan said and added, it was a Rs3.4 billion project to be launched in collaboration with Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The cabinet approved the project.

The cabinet, on the request of the health department, allotted 40 acres of land in Korangi district for the construction of the Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (SICVD). It approved the appointment of Imtiaz Ali Shah as the managing director of the Sindh Energy Efficiency & Conservation Agency. Energy minister Imtiaz Shaikh told the cabinet that Imtiaz Shah was selected out of nine candidates who had applied for the post.