Pakistan Mutthida Kisan Mahaz (PMKM) Chief Ayub Khan Mayo has accused the Punjab Food Department (PFD) and the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) of stopping the issuance of gunny bags and in some areas slowing its pace creating fears among growers that these agencies may not achieve their assigned wheat procurement targets.
In a statement issued on Saturday, he said delaying tactics adopted by these agencies at the start of the wheat procurement season and now the slow pace of procurement and distribution of gunny bags had created worries amongst the growers. He alleged that these agencies were not playing their due role to compensate the wheat farmers and 35 percent of the crop was still lying in the field while these agencies had stopped issuing gunny bags. He claimed that it seemed that there was a 50-percent cut of total purchasing targets of wheat by these agencies. "It is totally a wrong policy and would hit the farmers hard who already had sustained losses in rice, cotton and sugarcane crops," he added.
The Mahaz chief urged the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif if the provincial Food Department failed to meet the four million procurement target then it would lead to hardships for the next crops which would ultimately create a food security situation in the province and the country and also the federal and provincial governments to direct the procurement agencies for play their due role to save farmers from the clutches of middle men.