Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Qaiser announced Monday that his party will participate in farmers’ protests against the wheat procurement policy in Punjab, Aaj News reported.

In his speech on the floor of the house, he called on all PTI leaders to join the protest.

Earlier, opposition members of the Punjab Assembly rejected the government’s announcement to purchase wheat from farmers with up to six acres of land, citing concerns over the limited scope of the policy.

The opposition members expressed strong reservations, stating that the government’s plan to purchase only 1.35 million metric tons of wheat would leave many farmers without a buyer for their crop.

In a move to address the issue, the Speaker of the House formed a committee comprising Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman and Bilal Yasin to investigate the wheat procurement issue.

In a related development last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the concerned government department to procure wheat from farmers immediately.

The Prime Minister on Saturday also increased the federal government’s wheat procurement target of 1.4 million metric tons to 1.8 million metric tons.

The Prime Minister also issued orders to PASSCO to increase the wheat procurement target and ensure immediate procurement.

The Prime Minister directed Passco to give priority to transparency and convenience of farmers regarding the procurement of wheat.

The country has missed the wheat production target as the estimated production of the commodity is 29.69 million tons against the set target of 32.2 million for the Rabi Season 2023-2024 from an area of 9.6 million hectares of land.

According to provincial governments’ reports, shared during the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) meeting presided over by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) Rana Tanveer Hussain, wheat production for 2023-24 is estimated at 29.69 million tons from an area of 9.6 million hectares.

cording to provincial government estimates, out of 29.6 million tons of estimated production wheat, Punjab will produce 22.6 million tons of wheat, Sindh 4.4 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1.4 million tons, and Balochistan 1.3 million tons.