BAHAWALPUR: Terming the government’s wheat procurement policy flawed, the farmers’ associations of south Punjab have announced to stage a joint protest outside the Punjab Assembly on April 29.

The hard-hit middle-class growers in the districts of Bahawalpur, Vehari and Lodhran, with claims of high per acre wheat yield, say they have been forced to lodge protest against the government’s wheat procurement policy.

They are demanding that the government should do away with “complicated” Baradna APP, which had been introduced for “transparent” distribution of empty gunny bags among the farmers.

They also demand that food department’s procurement centres should be allowed open purchase so that farmers could sell all their yield at official price and avert financial losses.

In Vehari, the wheat growers staged a demo jointly organised by different bodies representing farmers against the government’s procurement policy.

On the occasion, the Pakisan Kissan Ittehad central secretary general Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed announced to stage a joint sit-in comprising farmers from across south Punjab on April 29 outside the Punjab Assembly.

He said the sit-in would be continued till the acceptance of the farmers’ demands, warning the government that if any attempt was made to disrupt the protest, they would stage sit-ins in every district of the province. He criticised the import of wheat despite the huge stocks of the grain produced locally lying in the government’s godowns.

Similarly, Pakistan Kissan Board central president Jam Hazoor Baksh said that because of the government’s flawed procurement policy, the wheat growers were now forced to sell their produce to the agents from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and upper Punjab, who were visiting the grain markets of south Punjab to purchase wheat at cheaper rates.

In Ahmedpur East, farmers Mushtaq Ahmed Sahoo and others say that as the government failed to announce open wheat procurement policy, the growers were compelled to sell their stocks at throwaway prices, bearing loss of about Rs600 to Rs700 per maund. Presently, he said the rates of wheat in the open market have fallen to Rs3,100 or Rs3,200 per maund, mocking the government’s support price of Rs3,900.

Pakistan Seraiki Party (PSP) has also criticised the government’s policy and pledged to join the protest on April 29 in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2024