Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) has asked the Food Department, Punjab, to provide its empty godowns for the storage of the rice, which would be produced from the mills, which are buying paddy throughout the country on behalf of the Corporation.
Managing Director, Passco, Major General Anwar Saeed Khan held a meeting with the Punjab Food Minister, Malik Nadeem Kamran, here on Thursday and made a formal request in this regard. Punjab Secretary Food Irfan Elahi and Director General Agriculture (Extension) were also present on this occasion.
Moreover, Punjab Food Department has agreed to give its empty godowns to the Passco for the storage of rice till March 31, 2009, said Secretary Food Punjab, Irfan Elahi while talking to this scribe. Giving details on phone, MD Passco said that the Corporation had storage capacity of three million tonnes of wheat and these godowns are empty at present, which could be utilised for the storage of rice.
However, he said that the Corporation had a target of procuring one million tonnes of paddy, which after conversion into rice would be in the range between 500,000 to 550,000 tonnes. He said, as per these calculations, the Corporation would need additional storage of 250,000 tonnes. He said that the Corporation had asked the Food Department Punjab to provide its empty godowns for storage of rice.
MD Passco Anwar Saeed said that till Wednesday the mills on behalf of the Corporation had procured 96,000 tonnes of paddy out of which 88,000 tonnes is Basmati and 8,000 tonnes is Irri variety. He said that out of Irri variety, mills had procured 6000 tonnes from Sindh and 2,000 tonnes from Punjab.
Regarding the number of mills procuring paddy on behalf of the Corporation, he said that some 107 mills were registered with the Corporation till Wednesday in Punjab, 43 in Sindh and 11 in Balochistan. Regarding complaints of slow pace of procurement, the MD Passco said that it was picking pace and its not delayed as being painted.
It was also learnt that during this meeting issues of 'cut' in the weight of paddy and other issues being faced by the farmers were also discussed and the Agriculture Department assured the Passco that all the DCOs would be asked to look in to these problems and resolve them locally.
Chairman, Basmati Growers Association (BGA), Hamid Malhi while talking to this scribe said that it was a good step by the government to intervene in the market to stabilise the paddy prices. However, he said it was a delayed step and in future the government should take such steps timely.