ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) has procured about 307,363.400 metric tonnes of wheat in three provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, besides giving about 496,486.250 sacks to the growers in Punjab and 72,693 sacks in Sindh and 13,646 sacks in Balochistan during the continuing wheat procurement campaign.
According to a PASSCO official, about 248,175.500 metric tonnes of wheat has been procured from different areas of Punjab at official fixed rates. Whereas PASSCO has also procured about 48,925 metric tonnes of grains from Sindh and 10,262.400 metric tonnes of wheat from the Balochistan province during its procurement campaign for the year 2015-16, he added.
He said that PASSCO has distributed Punjab into 9 zones and established its centres where as one zone each in Sindh and Balochistan for wheat procurement.
He informed that PASSCO has completed 35 percent of wheat procurement operation in Punjab, 61 percent in Sindh and 57 percent in Balochistan for the recent season. It may be recalled that PASSCO and Punjab Food Department have established over 500 wheat procurement centres for purchasing wheat during the current procurement campaign.
PASSCO had arranged about 8 million bags for the packing of over 800,000 tonnes of grain and it has set a target to distribute 70 percent of sacks in first 15 days of procurement campaign, he added.
PASSCO had established its centres in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces to facilitate the growers to sell their produces on official fixed rates.
He said that of the total sacks, 92 percent would be provided for growers in Punjab and the remaining would be distributed in Sindh and Balochistan to facilitate the growers. He informed that the government has so far assigned PASSCO to procure about 800,000 tons of wheat during current harvesting season to facilitate the farmers, particularly small-scale growers.
According to the procurement policy, the corporation would provide eight bags per acre for small farmers to procure 20 maund per acre on first come and first serve basis, he added.
PASSCO will fulfil the 100 percent bags requirements of small farmers from saving them the exploitation of middleman and safeguarding the interest of farmers in the country.
Up to 25 acres, the farmers would be provided 200 bags in first stage to sell their produces on official fixed rate of Rs. 1300 per 40 kg as all provinces procure the grains as according to their annual demand and consumption where as only PASSCO kept about 1 million tons as the national strategic reserves.
The government had set a target to cultivate wheat crop of over 9,810 thousand hectares during the crop season 2014-15 to produce 26 million tons as compared to last year’s output of 25 million tonnes. Wheat cultivation targets for the Punjab Province were fixed at 6,600 thousand hectares, Sindh cultivation targets at 1,150 thousand hectares, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 760 thousand hectares and Balochistan’s crop cultivation targets fixed at 400 thousand hectares.
