An official in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MinFA) told APP here on Tuesday that government would procure about 6.57 million tons of wheat to fulfil the domestic requirements as well as for keeping the strategic food reserves in the country.
In Punjab about 2.16 million tons of the commodity has been procured so far as against the set targets of 4 million tons, he added.
He informed that Sindh province has procured about 1.17 million tons as against its set procurement targets of 1.3 million tons for the year 2011-12.
Meanwhile, he said that procurement campaign was also resumed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan as the provinces has so far purchased about 0.38 million tons and 0.054 million tons of wheat respectively from the growers on official fixed rates of Rs. 950 per 40 kg.
The official further said that Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) procured about 0.548 million tons of the commodity as against the targets of 1.3 million tons.
PASSCO has been given the task to procure 1.3 million tons of the commodity adding that it would procure 1.26 million tons from Punjab and 0.04 million tons from Sindh, he added.
The PASSCO has started the wheat procurement in Punjab where it has procured about 0.233 million tons of wheat from its 176 procurement centers across the province, he added.
The official further informed that PASSCO has established eleven (11) procurement centers in Sindh, Fourteen (14) centers in Balochistan for procuring the commodity.
It may be recalled that this year wheat crop has been sown over 8.8 million hectare of land in the country to fulfil the domestic consumption which was 3.5 per cent less as compared to the last year sowing.
Wheat crop has been sown over 6.68 million hectare of land in Punjab, while in the Sindh Province about 1.08 million hectare of land are under wheat crop, he said.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) the wheat crop was sown over 0.73 million hectare and in Balochistan it was cultivated over 0.32 million hectare.
The provincial governments in line with the federal government was providing 200 bags per farmer at an average of 10 bags per acre for small and medium growers for grains packing, he added.
The large scale farmers having land of more than 50 acre were provided 500 bags per farmer adding that when these bags would be filled by the growers they would be provided more bags.
It is pertinent to note here that bumper wheat crop of over 24 million tons is expected during current crop season as against 22 million tons of domestic requirements of the commodity.