Agri Forum Pakistan has said that government's indifferent attitude, unnecessary delay in purchasing wheat from farmers, Food Department's meager arrangements, shortage of bardana (bags) and limited number of purchase centres have become major obstacles in wheat purchase this year.
Due to these factors and ineffective planning of the government, the role of middleman has further increased and he is looting the poor farmers. It was observed in a meeting of the Forum, which was chaired by Ibrahim Mughal and attended by its founding members including Farooq Bajwa, Chaudhry Muhammad Amin Chattah, Syed Tariq Ali Shah and Mohammad Mansha here, on Sunday.
The meeting reviewed in details the situation relating to wheat purchase and voiced concern over the increasing role of middleman in the process. They said that the wheat harvesting continuing since last four months has completed while threshing would also end in next few days.
They urged the government that the currently there is no buyer in the market, therefore farmers are forced to sell their produce at Rs400 per mound instead of Rs425 per maund.
They suggested to the government that both PASSCO and Food Department should be assigned whaeat purchase targets of 2 million tons and 4 million tonnes, respectively. They further proposed for raising the number of wheat purchase centres to 500 by the Food Department. Moreover, Passco should also make an upward revision in number of what purchase centres in order to facilitate the farmers community, the participants of the meeting added.
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