ISLAMABAD, May 28: Gram growers in the country are getting 35 per cent less price than the official procurement rate, sources told Dawn here on Saturday. They said the government had directed the Utility Stores Corporation to procure 50,000 tons of gram following the almost 100 per cent increase in the production this year. The procurement price was set at Rs18 per kg.

However, the USC was not following the directives owing to which the farmers had to sell gram at Rs10-12 per kg to the middleman, the sources said. This revelation is in sharp contrast to the government’s claim of channelling Rs60 billion to the rural areas through agricultural growth.

The total production of gram this year is estimated at 800,000 tons compared to over 400,000 tons last year. Therefore, the government has also asked for the export of the commodity to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. So far only 25,000 tons have been exported to India.

The sources said that despite hard labour and good crop, the farmers were facing the worst type of exploitation at the hands of middleman mafia. Gram is being sold at Rs30-35 in the open market and the real beneficiaries are the middlemen and neither the consumers nor the farmers.