Sindh to face acute wheat shortage

One does not have to be an expert to know that Sindh will have to face acute shortage of wheat even on completion of harvesting season as this had been forewarned by all stakeholders, including growers' associations.
The Sindh Abadgar Board, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and Small Farmers Association have been agitating since October, 2003 against the delayed commencement of sugarcane crushing which shortened the cropping period for wheat having a negative impact on wheat production.
It is well known that a sizeable wheat crop is cultivated on lands vacated by harvesting of sugarcane crop.
This time, sugar mill owners deliberately delayed crushing by almost two months. The result was that the fields which had to be vacated by sugarcane and used for wheat sowing were not made available for wheat sowing with the result that area under wheat crop was drastically reduced.
It was observed that sugar millers did not pay heed although this point was agitated repeatedly but those in power could not prevail upon sugar millers, rather played in the hands of the sugar industry magnates.
The result can be seen now that at the peak of wheat harvesting season there is acute shortage of wheat in Sindh province. The economic acumen of the policy makers can be judged by the fact that they have not yet come up even with the estimated production of the crop.
Sindh government is all-out to blame Punjab for restricting the inter-division and inter-provincial movement of wheat but is itself guilty of the same offence by banning inter-district movement of wheat. It is like drowning man that the government is trying to catch at a straw which would not help.
The immediate problem which needs first-hand solution is that of wheat procurement to avert overall wheat crises which will become insurmountable not in too distant future but in next couple of months as warned by the Sindh Abadgar Board President Abdul Majeed Nizamani several months back.
The government should gear up for wheat import due to ill-conceived policy of the government.
Most of the wheat crop in lower Sindh had been harvested and found its way to open market. To achieve the wheat procurement target the government can only buy wheat from upper Sindh where wheat harvesting is continuing.
Federal Cabinet is meeting on Monday to review the situation created by restriction on movement of wheat by Punjab and Sindh and also the demand of the growers that restriction should be removed immediately.