MinNFS&R proposes to procure over 6.5mn tons of wheat

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of National Food and Security and Research has proposed to procure over 6.5 million tons of wheat during current harvesting season in order to tackle with domestic requirements, keeping the strategic reserves as well as for exporting.

Wheat harvesting has started in Sindh province as it was intended to procure about 1.4 million tons of grains for meeting the local requirements, besides maintaining smooth demand and supply, said Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Dr Imtiaz Ahmad Gopang.

Talking to APP here on Tuesday, he said that Punjab Province was proposed to procure about 1.3 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 0.2 million tons and Balochistan 100,000 tons respectively during coming grain procurement campaign, adding that the initiative would help to keep prices of the wheat and its products at smooth across the country.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporations (PASSCO) is likely to assign a task for the procurement of 1.2 million tons across the wheat producing areas on official fixed rates to facilitate the wheat growers by providing them proper rate of their output, he added.

However, he said that the final approval to this effect would be accorded by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet in its meeting, adding that provincial governments would also be directed to make all the needful in this regard for supplementing the grain procurement campaign.

Dr Imtiaz further informed healthy crop outlook was reported across the crop growing areas in the country by the Provincial Crop Reporting Services and it was expected that local wheat output to cross 26.5 million tons mark during current season, which would be sufficient for tackling the domestic requirements.

Wheat cultivation across the country has witnessed about 2.88 percent growth as compared to the sowing of the crop during the corresponding period of last year, he said adding that sowing during current Rabi season completed over 9.061 million hectares as against the set targets of 9.210 million hectares.

Crop cultivation during current season witnessed encouraging trend as crop sowing completed over 98.38 percent of the fixed area for Rabi Season 2020-21, he said adding that wheat sowing in Punjab had witnessed about 2.60 percent increase as compared to the sowing of last year.

In Sindh, he said that crop production targets had been achieved by 99.30 percent as sowing completed on 1.192 million hectares against the fixed targets of 1.200 million hectares, adding that wheat cultivation in Sindh witnessed about 0.70 percent increase as compared to the sowing of last season.

According the estimates grains sowing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan also grew by one percent respectively as grain cultivation witnessed significant growth in rain fed areas of both provinces, he added.

It may be recalled that Federal Committee on Agriculture had set wheat cultivation targets at 9.210 million hectares during crop season 2020-21 in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for exporting.