• Drive to buy 400,000 tonnes of grain kicks off; farmers want wheat procured from across Punjab
• Kissan leader urges govt to ensure official rate of staple, terms proposed subsidy a pittance

LAHORE: The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Limited (Passco) on Saturday began its second phase of wheat procurement from Faisa­labad in line with a decision of the federal government to procure 400,000 tonnes more than the original target of 1.4 million tonnes.

As he kick-started the second phase, Food Minister Rana Tanveer hinted at the possibility of further increasing the target to facilitate farmers. Passco had originally aimed to purchase 1.4m tonnes, but after farmers started protesting, the pressure on the federal and provincial governments piled on and the premier decided to increase the target to 1.8m tonnes. As of now, Passco has achieved 98 per cent of the initial target and distribution of gunny bags is already underway to meet the increased target.

Farmers, however, are not happy with the government’s decision to procure slightly more wheat than intended. They said Passco — a federal body — operated in 13 out of 97 tehsils in Punjab and the decision to purchase additional wheat from designated areas would have a negligible impact. According to farmers, the tradeable surplus this year is expected to be about 10m tonnes and buying 400,000 tonnes would hardly make any difference.

Punjab, on the other hand, is reluctant to procure wheat from growers despite province-wide agitations and the persistent stance of farmers. This has also caused a significant impact on the price of wheat, with the staple being sold at a rate much lower than the official price of Rs3,900 per 40kg.

The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad claimed that farmers had lost Rs1,150 billion under the wheat head alone due to the crashing prices which reportedly dipped below Rs3,000 per 40kg. Instead of procurement, the Punjab government said it would compensate farmers with interest-free loans of Rs150bn. Kissan leader Khalid Mahmood Khokar, however, is not impressed, saying the paltry subsidy came at a cost of Rs1,150bn. “Instead of this gimmickry, please ensure an officially declared price, which the provincial government had itself calculated, announced, and promised,” Mr Khalid urged the Punjab government.

The crisis

Pakistan is going through the most difficult wheat season of its history, exacerbated by policy failure and the import of millions of tonnes of wheat shortly before the bumper harvest. The bumper crop followed a record import of 3.5m tonnes by the private sector allegedly due to the ‘weakness’ of the caretaker regime.

Against the backdrop of such a huge import, hoarders also released their stock to earn profit.

The releases of stock by the hoarders and the import of the commodity flooded the market and even met the “entire domestic requirement”, leaving Passco and the Punjab Food Department with 4m tonnes of unexhausted stock.

“The 3.5m tonnes imports were staggered in a way, in the name of sustained supplies, that it overlapped with domestic harvesting season and created havoc for the domestic market,” explained Muhammad Ramzan, a wheat trader from Lahore.

At the start of this month, the Punjab government had promised a probe into the wheat scandal against the backdrop of protests by the farmers. On Friday, the farmers resumed their protests from Multan against the provincial government’s decision to not buy wheat from farmers.

At the protest, PKI leader Khokhar had said the agitation would continue against the government in every district of the province till the acceptance of their demands.

He had said the federal government was procuring the wheat in 16 tehsils of the province, while the Punjab government had not purchased even a single grain so far. “Federal government should also buy wheat from other tehsils of the province,” he had demanded.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2024