Wheat procurement from April 10

Punjab Minister for Food, Hussain Jehanian Gardezi has said that the Punjab government will start wheat procurement campaign from April 10. As a major shift in wheat procurement policy, the government has fixed no target of procuring wheat so as to ensure price of Rs 425 per maund to the farmers, he said, adding that there would be no restriction on the private sector to procure wheat.
The minister made these announcements while speaking at a discussion arranged by the Agriculture Journalists Association (AJA) on wheat procurement, here on Wednesday. He said that traditionally government starts wheat procurement by April 20, but this year keeping in view the demands of the farming community, this operation is being started from April 10.
He said that wheat procurement would certainly be more than the previous year. Although, the federal government has recommended Punjab government to procure three million tonnes of wheat, but it is not mandatory on the province. In order to safeguard the interests of farmers of the province, the government has fixed no target of wheat procurement this year, Gardezi added.
The Punjab food minister said that a 24 hours toll-free helpline would also be introduced in order to register complaints of the farmers' community with regard to any irregularity in wheat procurement and its early redressal.
The minister averred that the government was chalking out a three years strategic plan under which storage houses for wheat would be constructed in shape of 'Steel Silos' mainly in districts that have a wheat surplus. He said that storage capacity of 3-4 million tonnes would be developed under this strategic plan. At present, traditional stores have a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes but they are not in a usable condition. He said that development of new storage capacity would also remove the problems of bags and weighing. He said that these new storage houses would have digital weighbridges where wheat would be off-loaded.
Regarding any consistent policy on export of wheat, he said that wheat production in Punjab fluctuates every year. However, he said that now the province is entering into a surplus regime and it would lead to a consistent policy in this regard.
A Passco representative, Pervez Akbar speaking on this occasion said that the target given to Passco from all over Pakistan is 1.3 million tonnes. In Punjab, they would buy 1.2 million tonnes, 70,000 tonnes from Sindh and 30,000 from Balochistan. He said that they would set up 230 purchasing centers in 16 tehsils of Punjab for purchase of wheat.
Farmers' representatives including Ibrahim Mughal of Agri Forum, Idrees Khokhar of Farmers Association Pakistan while from Flour Millers Association Bilal Sufi and Khaliq Arshad threw light on various problems faced by the farmers and private sector during wheat procurement every year, role of public and private sectors and submitted various suggestions.