HYDERABAD (February 11 2004): Continuous shortage in wheat production might imperil the food security plan launched by the government in the country, particularly in the Sindh province.

Although Sindh has surpassed the wheat sowing target set by the government by 0.03 percent and the climatic conditions also remained favourable, but to achieve the production target of 2.324 percent remained a difficult task.

Agriculture experts expressed apprehensions that Sindh might once again record a decline in wheat production.

They said that their apprehensions were based on poor availability of water supply, which had put an adverse impact on early stages of the wheat crop.

The situation further aggravated owing to shortage of prophetic fertiliser, including DAP and subsequent price hike which had put a negative impact on per hectare yield and lastly inordinate delay in sugarcane crushing season.

The Sindh Abadgar Board president had estimated the wheat production loss of 0.5 million tonnes on account of delay in cane crushing season.

The statistics released by the Sindh Agriculture Extension showed that there was a negligible increase in area target, but poor availability of DAP might decline per hectare yield.

Sindh is facing acute wheat shortage despite arrival of 0.1 million tonnes from Passco and Punjab in the scarcity areas, while another 0.1 million tonnes is expected to arrive before the end of the current month.

The provincial Food Department is now planning to procure maximum possible wheat stock to stabilise price structure.

The experts termed it a hard nut to crack in view of the Food Department's last year performance when it planned to procure 0.5 million tonnes of wheat and failed to achieve even 50 percent of the target because most of the growers sold their produce to the grain traders.

The situation is not different to that of the last year as the wheat prices are continuously rising and the traders were already in the market with enormous financial resources and financial backup from the banking sector on low mark-up rates.

Courtesy Business Recorder