ISLAMABAD, April 25: The government has launched a wheat procurement programme to purchase four million tons of the commodity.

According to official sources, the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Service Corporation (Passco) has been assigned to undertake the task by procuring 1.1 million tons of wheat.

The Passco initiated the procurement process in Sindh by setting up three procurement centres at Hyderabad, Sukkur, and Khairpur to procure 100,000 tons of wheat from the province.

Besides the Passco, the Sindh food department has also started the operations to purchase wheat from the farmers at the government-fixed support price of Rs300 per 40 kilograms.

The Sindh government has given the procurement target of 400,000 tons of wheat during the current year.

Dispelling the impression that no procurement of wheat had been made in Sindh, a spokesman of the MINFAL said there was no truth in the report, and added that it was fabricated.

He said that the wheat procurement target had been reviewed from the earlier 1 million to 1.1 million ton by the Passco to accommodate a greater number of growers and it might be increased further if required.

The target for Punjab has been set at 1 million ton, while for Sindh it is 0.1 million.

He said that the Passco had established 138 procurement centres in 16 tehsils of Punjab and three centres in Sindh.—APP