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Punjab government unveils wheat procurement
policy
LAHORE (April 09 2004): Unveiling new wheat
procurement policy, Punjab Food Minister Chaudhry
Muhammad Iqbal on Thursday assured maintaining
support price for farmers and purchase of 3.5
million tons to maintain strategic stock for food
security.
Addressing a press conference, the minister said
that 308 centres have been set up throughout
Punjab to ensure departmental presence in every
nook and corner of the province. This, he claimed,
would facilitate efficient wheat procurement.
Dilating upon reasons for feeling assured about
achieving the target, food secretary Raja Shahid
Hussain, who was also present on the occasion,
said that early clues suggest a healthy crop size
this year. He put the figure at 16.4 million tons,
ie, 1.8 million more than the last year's 14.7
million tons.
This additional quantity would help the department
meet the target. Though competition would be
tough, but the food department has to ensure smart
buying for meeting the target, he said.
The minister claimed that the private sector has
procured around Rs 12.5 billion from the State
Bank of Pakistan as commodity loan.
Even if it adds another one-third of amount, it
would not have more than Rs 16 billion for the
procurement. With this money, it would only be
able to procure around 1.8 million tons of wheat
out of a marketable surplus of some 7 million
tons.
Rest of the five tons would be shared among
government agencies making achievement of the
target possible, he predicted.
All procurement centres would remain open from 7am
to 7pm and will deal farmer on the basis of
first-come-first-served. He ruled out any
administrative measures for ensuring purchase.
The government pledged to keep movement of wheat
free and plans to keep its promise at every cost.
The government, however, will keep a close watch
on the procurement process and held a weekly
meeting to monitor the situation constantly.
The government is committed to maintain strategic
stock for food security. If it is threatened, then
the government would obviously import wheat. But,
he insisted, such a situation would not arise as
crop size was substantially high.
Procurement pressure would not mean any compromise
on quality of wheat, he said and added:
"Departmental representatives would get samples
from centres throughout the province and get them
tested from regional laboratories of the
department. The staff concerned would held
responsible for any compromise on the quality."
Talking about condition of national identity card
for selling wheat to the Punjab Food Department,
the minister said that old ID cards would also be
accepted and no rejection would be made on this
ground.
Courtesy Business Recorder
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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