Punjab revises wheat buying target to 4.2m tonnes

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Department has revised its wheat procurement target for the ongoing campaign to 4.2 million tonnes, up from the previous target of 3.8 million tonnes, following a larger than expected crop yield, an official said on Tuesday.

Originally, Punjab government had assigned a buying target of 3.5 million tonnes to provincial Food Department. However, as much of stored wheat meant for maintaining carryover stock had to exhaust in free flour scheme, Food Department increased the procurement target to 3.8 million tonnes

A govt official revealed that Punjab would now strive to achieve an enhanced target of 4.2 million tonnes. However, in official numbers, the target is still 3.8 million tonnes.

Till April 23, 2023, Punjab managed to purchase 1.564 million tonnes, while gunny bags for buying 2.64 million tonnes wheat has been distributed among 58082 farmers. Punjab has so far achieved 36.60 percent of enhanced procurement target and 61.98 percent of gunny bags distribution target so far.

Among surplus grain producing districts of the province, Bahawalpur emerged as top achievers with procurement of 0.286 million tonnes, showing 76.35 percent progress so far followed by Rajanpur with buying of 0.131 million tonnes or 65.73 percent of the target.

Bahawalpur and Multan Divisions have achieved closed to or over 50 percent of procurement while all procurement staff in other divisions have been able to distribute one-third or more gunny bags to farmers.

Rainy spell and Eid holidays have slowed down harvesting and procurement drive to great extent. Inclement weather particularly poses threat to purchasing spree as it not only delays harvesting but could potentially damage harvest.

Another challenge pertaining to rumour mongering about rising prices of wheat in near future could adversely affect procurement drive. Social media has been rife with such posts wherein farmers are being advised not to sell their produce as its price are on trajectory of multiplying in months.

According to market insiders, instead of raiding growers by district administrations for seizing stored wheat, and creating panic and frustration, there is need to dispel impression being created through rumour mongering about possibility of increasing wheat price to Rs7000 or Rs10000 per 40kg in open market within months from official support price of Rs3900.

They were of the view that false projections of a steep rise in price on the last year pattern would discourage farmers in selling wheat to Food Department. On the other hand, flour millers are also not happy over curbs on wheat buying being done by private sector as they deem it necessary to purchase grains to meet their demand before release of official wheat from public sector.

Majid Abdullah, a central leader of progressive flour mill owners group, observed that the procurement drive was a voluntary one. “If the farmer wants to sell the wheat on his will and whenever at above than the minimum support price, he should be allowed to do so.” Regrettably, he added, the district administration was supposedly declaring farmers as hoarders and would seize their produce forcefully, which he termed not fair.