The government on Saturday endorsed Food Ministry's wheat procurement strategy for 2006, and directed the provinces and Passco, without noting what their storage capacity is, to make proper arrangements for aggressive buying from growers.
Historically, the provincial governments and Passco together procure 7 million tons wheat to meet the demand of the people for one year. Its major share goes to Punjab, which picks up 4 million tons wheat, Sindh and Balochistan procure roughly 2 million tons and Passco picks up the remaining one million tons.
Sources said that this year the situation is different altogether as the combined storage capacity of the provincial governments and Passco is inadequate. They would not be in a position to buy as much as stock as they used to buy in pervious years.
Less storage capacity will hinder aggressive procurement for the upcoming wheat season and the same factor may result in crash in prices, hitting the growers.
An official handout issued here after the meeting on Saturday hardly speaks about drastically low storage capacity for 2006, which means that the concerned officials were not giving the exact picture to the Prime Minister on the wheat procurement issue.
The handout said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz directed the provincial governments and Passco to procure wheat crop in 2006 at the minimum guaranteed price of Rs 415 per 40 kg. He said this while chairing a meeting to review the wheat situation in the country at Prime Minister House on Saturday.
According to the handout, the Prime Minister said that legitimate interest of the farmers would be safeguarded. He directed Punjab and Sindh governments and Passco to purchase stocks of wheat assigned to them.
The meeting was informed that the price of wheat was stable and that adequate stocks of wheat were available in the country due to the good wheat crop last year and the strategic reserves built up by the provincial governments and Passco. The meeting was also informed that wheat crop for the current year looked satisfactory.
The Prime Minister also directed that free movement of wheat within the country should be ensured. He also said that private sector should be encouraged to purchase wheat from the market as was done in previous years and the commercial banks should continue to support the private sector.
The meeting was attended by the Federal Food and Agriculture Minister Sikander Bosan, Advisor on Finance Dr Salman Shah, Federal Secretaries and Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Sindh.
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