HYDERABAD: The Sindh food department is releasing 32,000 tonnes of ‘unfit-for-human-consumption’ wheat stocks from six years ago to flour mills for the month of February, Dawn has learnt.

The old wheat stocks — half of which will be provided to Karachi — are from the years 2012-2017. The wheat was found unfit for human consumption as per the food department’s Feb 2 communication for all of its region.

The Sindh food department has divided the quantity of wheat to be distributed among six regions of the province including Karachi, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdad­kot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Kashmore.

Of the 32,000 tonnes, 16,851.04 tonnes are to be released to Karachi, 400 tonnes to Larkana, 135 tonnes to Qambar-Shahdadkot, 12.55 tonnes to Shikarpur, 5,589.08 tonnes to Jacobabad and 8,742.20 tonnes to Kashmore.

Karachi will be provided 1,98.44 tonnes from 2013-14 season, 732 tonnes from 2014-15 season, 506.44 tonnes from 2015-16 season, 1,837.67 tonnes from 2016-17 season and 12,376.23 from 2017-18 season to make up for 16,851.04 tonnes. Similarly, remaining six districts would also get old stocks pertaining to different years between 2012-2017.

An additional quantity of 199,000 tonnes of wheat will be released for flour mills of six regions including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad. Apart from the godowns in Landhi, Karachi’s flour mills are required to lift their wheat from Ghotki and Kashmore.

A former food official told Dawn that if the department indeed is releasing old stocks this might be the disputed wheat pertaining to a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) probe in upper Sindh. “Such wheat is certainly not fit for human consumption and is usually auctioned for poultry use or animal feed,” he said, requesting anonymity.

Of the 32,000 tonnes, larger quantity of 22,018.92 tonnes pertained to 2017-18 year out of which 12,376.23 tonnes are to be released for Karachi alone, followed by 6,652.09 tonnes for Kashmore and 2,990.60 for Jacobabad district.

A food department official, however, claimed that 32,000 tonnes are to be released at issue price of Rs3,687. “It will be mainly used in poultry freed but if we go for auctioning we will get meagre returns. These are old stocks which are available with our godowns and are being disposed of,” he said.

The Sindh government did not procure wheat in 2018-19 on plea it had surplus stocks, even though the food department had pressed for procurement. It failed to meet procurement target of 1.4m tonnes last year also and ended up getting 1.236m tonnes. This was despite the fact that the government waived condition of Form-VII which was mandatory to be produced by farmers for selling wheat to department. 1.236m tonnes procurement was achieved after the department used strong-arm tactics for procurement and wheat lying with farmers as a seed was lifted to meet target in some cases.

Sindh produced 3.778m tonnes of wheat in 2018-19 as 1.052m hectares were brought under the crop’s cultivation. In 2019-20, wheat was grown on 1.134m ha and 3.848m tonnes production was achieved. The sowing target in 2019-20 was fixed at 1.150m ha. Agriculture officials in Sindh believe the sowing target of 1.2m ha has been achieved rather a little over it in 2020-21.

Sindh Secretary Food Haleem Sheikh clarified that the old wheat didn’t pertain to wheat being probed by NAB in upper Sindh. “These godowns are not the ones involved in a NAB reference,” he said. “Not only old stock but 199,000 tonnes of wheat crop of 2019-20 are to be released as well,” he added.

As to the matter of the wheat being ‘unfit for human consumption’, Mr Sheikh said, “We are giving old stocks after taking the flour mills association into confidence. They are ready to lift it for same price for purpose of feed for birds/animals because it is not fit for human consumption and market price even for rotten wheat is higher than government’s rate.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan Flour Mills Association South Zone Chairman Haji Yousuf told Dawn that they had opposed release of old stocks of wheat. “The wheat stocks are not fit for human consumption and Sindh secretary food Haleem Sheikh had formed a committee in this regard which would be chaired by the Sindh director food. However, the outcome of the committee is not yet known to us,” he added.

“How can one consume wheat which was bought in 2012-13 period?” he wondered. He acknowledged that Feb 2 letter was “indeed issued”, but it was yet to be checked whether the wheat was being released. “Do you think we will be going to Ghotki and Kashmore to lift fresh crop?” a former chairman of the association questioned.

The Sindh government has not yet decided to fix wheat procurement target in the province for the crop season of 2020-21. However, it did announce a support price of Rs2,000 per 40kg to procure wheat whereas the federal government’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had approved a price of Rs1,650 per 40kg after it from Rs1,600 for this season. “There is speculation that the two governments might agree to a price of Rs1,800 per 40kg,” quipped a flour dealer from Karachi.

Wheat in the open market is being sold for Rs5,500 per 100kg bag currently in Karachi and the government procured crop at Rs1,400 per 40kg of Rs3,500 per 100kg bag. This year crop’s production was being assessed at 3.8-4m tonnes.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) wants the food department to increase their procurement target from 1.4m tonnes as it would eventually benefit government to stabilise market price subsequently. “We personally want identical support price in Pakistan. If Sindh government fixes Rs2,000 or Punjab complies with Rs1,650 ECC price, this might lead to smuggling. Traders from Punjab will be selling wheat to Sindh godowns to make an extra buck easily,” said SAB vice president Mehmood Nawaz Shah.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2021