Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has ordered the federal government to immediately buy wheat from farmers. According to media reports, the Prime Minister, taking strict notice of farmers’ complaints, has not only issued instructions to start immediate procurement, but has also increased the target from 14 lakh metric tonnes to 18 lakh metric tonnes. He directed the Wheat Procurement Organization (PASCO) to maintain transparency in the process and also to provide facilities to the farmers on priority basis. A few days ago, the Prime Minister had issued an order to investigate the import of wheat despite abundant reserves. Minister for Food Security and Research, Rana Tanveer Hussain, while responding to the objections of the National Assembly members, said that the caretaker government imported wheat ignoring the reserves of 4.1 lakh tonnes of wheat in the country, this unnecessary import caused the commodity in the provinces. However, they have written to the provincial chief ministers to immediately start procurement and increase wheat targets.
Rana Tanveer further said that the government is making all possible efforts to save the farmers from loss and the prime minister is focusing on specific subsidies for their convenience. He assured the House that apart from ensuring supply and pricing of fertilizers for the upcoming crop season, the budget would also announce a historic relief package for the convenience of small farmers. According to media reports, the private sector was actually rewarded by importing wheat and due to the wrong decisions taken by the bureaucracy during the caretaker government, the valuable foreign exchange of about one billion dollars was lost, that too at a time when the government was paying one dollar. Because Darbadar was moving. National Food Security asked for permission to import 3.5 lakh tonnes of wheat through the private sector despite the abundance of wheat, in the first phase permission was given to import 20 lakh tonnes of wheat, in the second phase approval was given to import another 1 million tonnes of wheat. In this way, a total of more than 3 million tons of wheat was imported.
The Economic Coordination Committee approved the import of wheat, although more than 4 million tons of wheat are in the government warehouses by April 1, 2024, and there is no need to import wheat in view of the expectation of a new crop of wheat from Sindh in March this year as well. The biggest loss of this strategy of the caretaker government is being borne by the wheat farmers The problem is that if more wheat is bought from the farmers, the government will suffer financial loss and if it is not bought, the farmers may not be able to grow the next crop. The arrangements for wheat storage in the country are also insufficient due to which the Food Department of Punjab is also currently following the policy of not buying wheat, that is why no one is being issued bardana. Farmers have demanded that the wheat procurement process should be started immediately, they have also announced to protest against the current situation. In the Economic Coordination Committee meeting held on March 8 last month, the support price of wheat was fixed at 3900 rupees per maund while the participants were told that a bumper crop of wheat is expected this year, it is cautiously estimated that 28 million rupees Tons can be produced up to 29 million tons.