MULTAN, March 14: Officials, farm experts and farmers in South Punjab have denied any attack of fungus Ug99 on wheat crop in Pakistan.

The Director of Ayub Agriculture Research Institute, Faisalabad, Dr Makhdoom Hussain, told Dawn on Friday that not a single instance of attack of the fungus had so far been reported from anywhere in the country.

He said that in the past the wheat crop suffered from the attack of fungus ‘leaf ruft’, but after the application of the virus-resistant varieties of seed by local scientists, the fungus was controlled. The scientists at the centre also introduced few virus resistant seed varieties to control the ‘strip ruft’ fungus.

He said that although wheat crop had not yet faced the attack of Ug99 fungus, also known as strain fungus, but after news of spread of this fungus in Iran, Pakistani scientists have started research on this fungus based on studies received from Kenya and they have prepared some varieties of seed that could form resistance against the fungus.

Dr Hussain pointed out that due to the favourable climate this year wheat crop remained safe from the attack of all kinds of fungus.

Another government official, on the condition of anonymity, said that there was no sign of the attack at the demonstration farms at Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Vehari, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Raiwind and Jhang.

He said that the attack of the said fungus would not harm the crop because now the wheat had been grown and the process of seed setting had begun.

Khawaja Muhammad Shoaib of Farmers Vision Forum said that the country’s wheat crop was totally safe from any kind of fungus and the reports about the possible fungus attack was a propaganda by some foreign traders, who want to supply wheat to Pakistan at higher prices.

He said that the caretaker set-up has fixed per maund procurement price of wheat at Rs510, which is equal to $205 per ton, while, on other hand, the government is importing wheat at $653 per ton.

He said that the farmers in Sindh were not selling their crop to the government but they prefer to sell the same to the private sector, which offers Rs640 per maund against the government’s procurement rate of Rs510.

He thought that when the government would be unable to achieve its procurement target, it would import wheat and this would automatically fulfill ‘nefarious objective’ of the wheat mafia operating in and outside the country.

A Ministry of Food and Agriculture official told Reuters in Islamabad: “The Ug99 poses no threat to the present crop ... it will take some little while to reach Pakistan.”

Wheat Commissioner Shakeel Ahmed said: “We have done our work on it and hopefully, we can manage it.”

The Ug99 was first found in Uganda in 1999 and has since spread to Yemen and last week was found in Iran. The fungus spores can be carried by the wind over large distances.