ISLAMABAD (APP): Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation has established about 230 wheat procurement centers across wheat growing areas in country in order to facilitate the grain producers to sell their produces at official fixed rates. The centers were established in order to initiate the wheat procurement campaign for the crop season 2018-19, besides facilitating the farmers, protecting them from the exploitation of middle men and providing them better prices of their produces, said Passco Managing Director Muhammad Khan Khichi. Talking to APP here on Wednesday he said that in this regard the whole country was divided into zones for enhancing the outreach of the corporation and facilitating the growers across the crop producing areas of provinces. The Passco would establish 230 procurement centers in these zones with close coordination of the allied departments of the provinces to make the campaign more effective and transparent, he added.
He said that Passco had divided the Punjab Province into 11 zones, where as it had established two zones in Sindh and one in Balochistan provinces respectively to encourage farmers to sell their produces at the nearest wheat procurement centers of the corporation.
The MD said that Passco would procure about 900,000 tons of wheat during current wheat procurement campaign, where as the food departments of the respective provinces would also procure the grains in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for keeping the strategic reserves for the country.
The corporation would distribute about 9 million bags among the farmers and in this regard the Passco had devised a new mechanism and policy to maintain the transparency in the whole process of sack distribution and eliminated the involvement of local administration in the distribution process, he remarked.
Khan further informed that this year Passco had invited the applications from the farmers for sacks and a list would be prepared on basis of these applications and these lists would be open on given date and time.
There would be balloting on the basis of received application for ginny gags in presence of farmers, representatives of village organizations, district administration and other notables of these areas to address the complaints of farmers.