Enhanced wheat target likely

Punjab Food Dept gears up for more procurement

LAHORE:

The Punjab government is likely to set a big target for official purchase of wheat in view of demands by farmers and political leaders.

According to sources, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz decided during a meeting with Pakistan Kisan Ittehad leader Khalid Mehmood Khokhar to set the government procurement target for wheat. She also assured the farmers’ representative that the limits announced regarding the area and number of gunny bags to be issued for the procurement would be revised.

The Kisan Ittehad leader has demanded that the food department's wheat procurement target should be set at 3.5 million tonnes. He also called for replacement of the limit of issuing six bags per acre for six acres of land with 200 sacks.

The sources said the food department had started arrangements to meet the procurement target. An ‘indent’ has been prepared for gunny bags for the purchase of wheat.

A summary of posting of field staff for the procurement has also been approved by the Chief Minister's Office.

Meanwhile, the farmers and flour mill owners are also demanding action by the federal government against the authorities working under the caretaker set-up involved in importing more than 800,000 tonnes of surplus wheat by altering a decision to ban the import on February 14. Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzaib had also termed the surplus import a major drawback.

For the first time in history, the Punjab cabinet had not set an official target for wheat procurement for the food department. The government had decided that the department would purchase less wheat.

However, the policy drew criticism from farmers' organisations and political parties.

Lawmakers from the opposition as well as the ruling coalition had criticised the wheat policy in the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz invited the head of Pakistan Kisan Ittehad and discussed the situation.

PML-N leader Pervaiz Rasheed, Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Food Minister Bilal Yasin, Agriculture Minister Ashiq Kirmani and Principal Secretary Sajid Zafar Dal attended the meeting, the sources said.

They said Khalid Khokhar termed the government's wheat policy tantamount to economic massacre of farmers.

He said that in the past 76 years, the governments had bought wheat by breaking into farmers' homes and warehouses, seizing their trolleys from the roads and taking them to food department centres, and making grain markets no-go areas for them. He said the governments had given billions of rupees in subsidy while farmers bore the bank interest on loans.

He said now the Punjab government should buy wheat for the sake of the farmers this year even if it had to face a loss while saving them.

Khokhar said that if the price of wheat is not paid adequately, the farmers would not be able to buy fertilisers and pesticides for cultivating maize and mustard, while the wheat cultivation next year would also drop.

The source said some participants of the meeting had said the government was offering relief to the farmer owning up to six acres of land, but he growers’ leader said those owning 12.5 acres had been officially considered small farmers.

Khokhar said the food department should buy at least 3.5 million tonnes of fresh wheat. He said a minimum of 200 sacks should be given to a farmer and the support price of wheat in Punjab should be Rs4,700 per maund.

He also called for action over the import of surplus wheat.

The food department had earlier purchased jute bags, after which it has the capacity to purchase 1.9 million tonnes of wheat. However, preparations are under way to buy PP bags for millions of tonnes more.

An approval will also be sought from the federal government to take loans from banks for purchasing the wheat.

Under the government policy, online procedures had been included in the procurement process but these provisions may also be revised, the sources said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2024.