Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) is going to start procurement of paddy in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan from November 3. For this purpose, the Corporation has set up 71 procurement centres in all the three provinces.
Out of them, 50 centres have been set up in Punjab, 16 in Sindh and five in Balochistan, sources in the Corporation told Business Recorder here on Saturday. The sources said that the farmers would be paid Rs 1,500 per maund as price of Super paddy and Rs 700 per maund for IRRI-06 paddy.
The target assigned to the Corporation by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) is to procure one million tonnes of paddy of both the qualities. Out of this, 500,000 tonnes super and 500,000 IRRI would be purchased, the sources added.
They further said that the Corporation had floated a tender for purchase of five million gunny bags for storing this procured paddy in its stores. Order for 15, 00,000 bags had already been placed. The sources said that the farmers had been advised to bring clean produce at these procurement centres having not more than 10-12-percent moisture ratio, as it has to be stored by the Passco in its stores.
To a query, the sources said that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had approved a credit line of Rs 31 billion for this paddy procurement movement by the Corporation. When asked that farmers'' organisations were accusing the Passco of delayed start as far as IRRI is concerned, the sources stated that IRRI is available in Sindh and it could be procured till January and February.