'Farmers forced to dispose of their produce on throwaway prices'

Inordinate delay in starting wheat procurement by Punjab Food Department and Passco has forced 90 percent of small wheat growers of the province to dispose of their produce on throwaway prices to the private sector.
Now the same middleman and private sector is flexing its muscles to sell this around 1.9 million tons of wheat to the official procurement agencies on government support price and earn a profit of rupees 4.42 billion, alleged Chairman Pakistan Agri-Forum, Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal while talking to a select group of journalists, here on Monday.
He said that Punjab government fixed a production target of 19.2 million tons of wheat this year with the claim that every grain of the crop would be bought by the provincial food department at the rate of Rs 950 per maund. However, he said that wheat production remained 700,000 tons less than the target as farmers produced around 18.6 million tons.
Chairman Pakistan Agri-Forum said farmers retained 11 million tons for their own needs such as food and seed. Out of the remaining 7.5 million tons wheat, private sector bought 1.9 million tons as it started procurement from April 17 this year while the procurement agencies, contrary to the past tradition of starting procurement from April 18 to 20 every year, started wheat procurement from 1st May 2011. He argued that this private sector, mainly comprising near and dear ones of official procurement agencies, bought wheat at the rate of Rs 810 to Rs 850 per maund and thus caused a loss of around rupees six billion to the growers.
Talking about the recent scenario, Mughal claimed that in a recent meeting of his organisation members from all over the province, it was learnt that around 85 percent of total 3,865,000 families who grow wheat in the province are holders of less than five hectares of land. As harvesting started in the province around April 10, so 90 percent of the small landholders had to sell their produce for they had to vacate their fields for next crop or due to fear of theft or damage to harvested by rains. They also had to sell their produce to buy inputs for next crops of rice or cotton or to irrigate their sugarcane fields, he revealed.
He further said that out of 1.9 million tons, near and dear ones of the food department and Passco had bought around 1.36 million tons at Rs 810 to 850 per maund to sell it to the provincial food department and earn a huge profit of Rs 4.42 billion. He said that there is a need that the provincial government realises the situation and takes necessary steps to avoid this situation and force the food department to play its due role, which is to protect the interests of small farmers.
Pakistan Agri-Forum Chairman also drew attention of the provincial government to another point that 800,000 tons of wheat was bought by the flourmills in Lahore including those having silo facility. He said total annual need of Lahore's population is 1.1 million tons, as these flourmills had bought wheat at the rate of Rs 810 to 850 per maund, so they should also bring down price of flour bags. He claimed that the present rate of Rs 1,000 per maund flour bag was fixed in line with the wheat released to flour millers by food department.