Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation Ltd (Passco) officially stopped wheat procurement campaign for crop 2007 on June 30. It successfully procured 1.269 million tonnes of wheat, which is 97.60 percent of the target of 1.3 million tonnes.
According to a spokesman of the Corporation, during the campaign, which started from the second week of April, contrary to last year, a number of farmers directly tendered their wheat at Passco purchase centres.
Passco has a carry over stock of 0.232 million tonnes of crop 2006 and if procurement of present year is added, the total stock of wheat held by Passco comes to 1.5 million tonnes.
The spokesman stated that the MD Passco, Major General Ahmad Nawaz Saleem Mela formulated a transparent and farmer-friendly policy for procurement of the crop 2007. Availability of gunny bags (bardana) was always a problem and during the wheat procurement this year, corporation ensured 90 percent availability of gunny bags at the start of the procurement and 125 per cent during the second week of May.
Committees were formed at Centre and Zonal levels comprising of farmers/growers and notables of the area along with Passco staff to oversee entire procurement policy. Establishment of complaint cell at Passco secretariat and frequent field visits by MD and all officers concerned ensured transparency.
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