LAHORE, May 29: The Punjab concluded on Tuesday its wheat procurement drive at less than 2.9 million ton, which is more than 0.6 million ton short of its declared target of 3.5 million ton and 1.1 million ton less than what it had arrangements for (4 million ton).

The farmers termed the falling short of target a “departmental design,” which was carefully crafted to terminate the campaign well short of three million ton. However, the department blames it at the small crop size – “far less than the projections made by the farmers and the Agriculture Department.”

By falling short of the target, the Punjab government saves around Rs18 billion out of Rs92 billion, which it had arranged for 3.5 million ton. Given the provincial financial crunch, it is a huge saving, but came with a price tag; farmers crying foul both on price and purchase.

“All the farmers’ bodies agreed that the price sustained at around Rs950 per 40kg, or Rs1,000 per 40kg than officially declared price of Rs1,050 per maund,” says an official of Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP).

The price decrease came because of official policies. The farmers faced double jeopardy; they had a small window of 15 to 20 days to sell their crop, which had been delayed by weather for 20 days – squeezing the harvesting and sale time. On the other hand, they also knew right from the beginning that the Food Department would end its purchase much before three million ton figure. Thus they had no option but to throw their crop at whatever price they got, and got almost 10 per cent less than official price, he says.

“There has been no hue and cry from farmers, as usually is, and the department has not been able to meet its target; both these factors go to prove that either the department did well or the crop size much lesser than the earlier projections,” says a departmental official.

The millers were not in the field as much they used to be. Exporters did not make such a huge purchase as it commercially made little sense. The private traders, especially rice dealers, were there but they could not have absorbed any substantial quantity. Thus the only valid explanation seems to be smaller crop size, he says.

“The farmers should know that they would only get market value of their crop, regardless of officially declared price,” says a trader from the city. Official price, more often than not, is politically motivated rather than making commercial sense. Had this price not been around Rs950 per 40kg, there would have been no buyers in the market. The Afghan buyers, who sustained the price at that level, were there because price was affordable for them. Had it been above Rs1,000 per 40kg, they would not have been in the market. The millers were not there anyway. The private traders purchased because they knew they had margin because of lower price. Had all these buyers been not there, the government would have been the only one to take the entire surplus – an impossible task given the financial crunch. The price decline in that situation could have been much steep. This price was, in fact, a blessing in disguise, he argued.