The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) has so far procured 315,464 metric tons of wheat against the procurement target of 1.3 million metric tons assigned by the federal government. A spokesman of the Corporation said here on Thursday that wheat procurement drive is in full swing and its officers have so far issued gunny bags for 449,334 metric tons of wheat to the growers in designated areas of the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
The Corporation has set up 180 procurement centres in fifteen Tehsils of Punjab including Pindi Bhattian, Hafiz Abad, Gojra, Okara, Pakpattan, Mailsi, Burewala, Mian Channu, Lodhran, Kehror Pakka, Bahawalnagar, Minchinabad, Alipur including Jatoi, Khanpur and Layyah. While 11 procurement centres are working in Sindh and 8 in Balochistan, the spokesman added.
In order to discourage middlemen and arhtis, lists of revenue department have been provided at all the procurement centres so as to benefit the small growers to the maximum. Staff of the Corporation will work throughout the week and there will be no holiday during the procurement season, the spokesman said. The spokesman said that the Managing Director of the Corporation Major General Sohail Shafqat visited the procurement centres in Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Okara and other to monitor the procurement process and ensure that growers are fully facilitated, the spokesman added.