Breaking bread: Wheat procurement drive to start this month

The interests of small farmers will be protected at all cost, says chief minister.

LAHORE:

The government will procure wheat on a support price and protect the interests of small farmers, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Monday.

The chief minister has approved the wheat procurement campaign for this year.

He announced this at a meeting to discuss the wheat procurement campaign. Minister for Food Security Sikandar Hayat Bosan, and Provincial Ministers Bilal Yaseen, Muhammad Shafiq, Rana Mashood Ahmed, Iqbal Channer and Dr Farrukh Javaid were present at the meeting.

The chief minister said that the distribution of gunny bags will start on April 15 and the purchase will be transparent.

He directed provincial ministers and secretaries to supervise the campaign.

Sharif said he would visit the wheat procurement centres to review the situation himself. He said his helicopter would be made available to facilitate farmers from far-flung areas.



The chief minister said the government had set a wheat procurement target of 3.5 million metric tonnes for the province.

He said the interests of small farmers would be protected.

Complaint centres would be established at the tehsil, district and province levels to provide redress to their grievances.

He said that relevant assembly members will also be inducted in the district supervisory committees. The chief minister removed the deadline for procurement centres to complete the procurement campaign. He said the produce would be procured daily from cultivators who visit the centres. He said proper arrangements should be made at the procurement centres to facilitate farmers.

He said the citizens’ feedback system would be invaluable for the campaign and the role of the middleman would be completely eliminated.

He said a digital monitoring system should be evolved so that the campaign can be monitored.

The chief minister issued orders for the screening and transfer of the Food Department staff and said honest and hard working officials should be posted at wheat procurement centres.

He said a digital monitoring system for flour mills purchasing wheat should also be developed.

He directed the Food Department to ensure that the wheat procurement target was achieved and that the cultivators were facilitated.

Minister for Food Security Sikandar Hayat Bosan said the wheat would be procured in a transparent manner and fair remuneration to the farmers ensured.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2014.