Though Food Department and Passco have achieved 53 percent of the wheat procurement target in Southern Punjab, the middlemen are still fleecing the farmers of remote and far-flung areas. Beoparis with the financial assistance of some bankers have entered into wheat procurement business and are buying the commodity from growers at lower rates, compared to the support price of Rs 950 per 40 kg fixed by the government.
The government recently revised and cut down the wheat production estimate to 23.5 million tones from 25 million tones, but Punjab recently increased its procurement target. Complaints of growers have increased in the Province, as the Provincial Government kept revising its procurement target upwards. Currently, Punjab has set a target of procuring 4 million tones of wheat. Initially, it the target was set at 3.1 million tones and then increased to 3.5 million tones and now it rests at 4 million tones.
The province of Sindh is close to achieving its procurement target of 1.2 million tones. The Sindh Food Department had procured 1.07 million tones against the target of 1.2 million tones. 'We will be completing our target in the next 15-20 days,' sources at the Sindh Food Department said.
The Sindh has no plan to increase the procurement target. The Provincial Food Director said that there were fewer complaints by the growers against middlemen and their problems as compared to Punjab and their problems were resolved on the spot.
'We gave Rs 30 for old bags too, if someone had not received new empty bags from the Department,' he said. Referring to rust disease that attacked 'bakhar' variety of wheat in Sindh, he said no one had complained about it so far, but it was observed it had lost its weight. The spokesman of Farmers Association of Pakistan (FAP) told Business Recorder that according to the target the Food Department had provided empty bags to the district food controllers.
Empty bags (Bardana) were made available to big landowners with political power. But the increase in procurement target in Punjab has opened ways for middlemen, who came with old bags, which were not available with the growers. Besides, rates of old bags in the market increased by Rs 20 per bag to Rs 60, whereas they were given at Rs 40 in Punjab. 'Middlemen's role has a major role in every province and I am not satisfied with this situation,' he said while criticising those middlemen, who were actively involved in the business.
According to market sources, middlemen were buying wheat at around Rs 870 per 40kg in some places in Sindh and at around Rs 900 in Punjab against Rs 950. 'Middlemen play the game in collaboration with the Food Department,' he said. Besides middlemen, big landowners are also creating problems for small growers in Punjab.
There are big lines of wheat-loaded tractors and other vehicles at the procurement centres. Big landowners and people with political influence are able to sell earlier, and the small growers' vehicles are pushed back. In some cases, they had to stay for more than 24 hours in a queue to sell wheat to the officials. Some incidents of scuffles were also reported from many centres of the Province.
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