The Sindh government has directed the district food officials to conduct a survey of the procured wheat damaged recently by the floodwater to ascertain the real loss of the commodity, it is learnt. Sources told Business Recorder on Monday that the Food Department has recently instructed its district officials and inspectors to conduct a survey to ascertain the losses caused to stocked wheat in the province.
The floodwater has badly affected the commodity which was kept in the low-lying areas in almost all districts without any proper covering stuff. Sindh had procured more than 1.496 million tons against the target of 1.50 million tons wheat this season. However, the food department could only stock around 0.6 million tons of the commodity at the department's godowns, they said.
Further, they said, the provincial department had rented at least 92 godowns in twelve districts including Hyderabad, Benazirabad, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Jacobabad, Naushehro Feroz, Kamber-Shahdadkot, etc, to stock the commodity. The food department had adopted all preventive measures to safeguard the procured wheat and due precautionary measures. The flour mills godowns through the province had been declared as the Provincial Reserve Centre (PRC) for storage of wheat while private storage godowns were also hired in the region, they added. Moreover, sources said, wheat stock in districts Jacobabad, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Kamber-Shahdadkot, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Dadu and Thatta had reportedly been damaged. However, the exact loss could only be ascertained after the survey.