Poor infrastructure and malpractice of the procurement officers reported to have slow down the pace of wheat procurement in the province. According to field reports, the wheat crop after early reverses is better than last year.
The provincial Food Department has launched a wheat procurement campaign during the current harvest, but the poor availability of empty gunny bags and lack of logistic support would not only made it difficult to achieve the target but also deprived the small growers of reasonable price of their produce.
The procurement officers reported to have further aggravated the situation by asking one or two kilograms extra per bag in the name of trash, but the ground reality came to light when food officials conducted surprise visits of procurement centres.
They found that the procurement officers mixing trash in procured wheat and even their weight was found below standard.
He directed to issue show cause notices to procurement incharge of Panj Moro, Hala taluka, as well as the centre incharge of Qazi Ahmed. He also warned that if any complaint was received about the delivery of gunny bags to middlemen instead of farmers or proper arrangement was not made for storage of the grain, strict punitive action would be taken against the irresponsible officers.
The food department, to improve the availability of empty gunny bags, has approached the provincial Finance Ministry to release the remaining amount allocated for the purchase of empty gunny bags before the wheat harvest gain momentum.
It is feared that if the situation remained unchanged, it would adversely affect the economy of hundreds of thousand of small growers and would create instability in availability of staple food in the province where the price hike continue unabated.
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