PM Shehbaz Sharif asks KP to curb wheat smuggling

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Friday called upon the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government to take special measures to curb wheat smuggling and directed the Food Security Division to identify the quantity of wheat consumption by the province in consultation with the provincial government to ensure supply of the required quantity there.

He was chairing a meeting here to discuss wheat production, existing reserves and its consumption at the provincial and the national level. He also directed the authorities concerned to evolve a comprehensive strategy to check theft of the commodity and end corruption in the sector. He called for constructing silos to store wheat, adding that it would help eliminate the chances of corruption and theft of wheat.

The PM directed the Punjab government to enhance its target for wheat procurement and instructed the Food Security Division to timely import the commodity, if need arises, to meet any shortfall.

The meeting was given a detailed briefing about this year's production of wheat in the country. It was told that the target set for the current year was 28.89 million metric tons (MT) of wheat, but the production is likely to remain 26.173 million MT. The overall consumption of wheat is estimated at 30.79MT in the country.

The meeting was informed that reduction in wheat cultivation area, shortage of water and fertilizer crisis, taking place due to maladministration of the previous government, were the main reasons for the gap between the target and expected production of the commodity.

Besides, a tendency of two per cent reduction in cultivation of wheat was witnessed among farmers due to delayed announcement of the support price. Additionally, increase in oil prices and climate changes like early rise in temperature also obstructed the achievement of the set target for wheat production.

Regarding wheat procurement target at the government level, the meeting was apprised that Punjab had achieved 91.66 per cent, Sindh 49.68pc and Balochistan 15.29pc, while PASSCO had achieved 100 per cent of its objective.

The PM was also briefed about public relief measures taken by the government, which include provision of subsidised wheat to flour mills, availability of 10-kg of wheat flour bag at Rs400, supply of flour through Utility Stores in Balochistan and provision of two metric tons of wheat to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The PM said a fertilizer crisis was created at the time of wheat cultivation due to criminal negligence, bad governance and irresponsibility, which caused losses to farmers and the country. He said Pakistan is an agrarian country and wrong decisions and lack of timely strategy had made it a net importer of wheat.

The PM said delayed announcement of wheat support price led to reduction in cultivation of the crop in an attempt to directly benefit hoarders. He expressed his resolve to make Pakistan self-sufficient in wheat production through better strategy.