April 17, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1429

DADU, April 16: The provincial food department may fail to achieve wheat procurement target in the district as the growers have refused to sell their product on government –fixed rate of Rs 625.00 per maund.

Although the new wheat crop has reached the market, but the wheat-flour prices were moving upward where it is being sold at Rs30 per kilogramme while a bread available at Rs6.

According to a grower of taluka Johi, wheat stock was lying in a huge quantity but the government was not paying them right price. He claimed that they were contacting food officials for selling their product but officials were not cooperating. He said that the same situation prevailed in many parts of the district.

Food officials maintained that they were offering growers support price for their produce but the growers were demanding more than that which was unjustified. Consequently, the procurement was slow.

A number of traders from other provinces have set up camps in Dadu who were purchasing the commodity on relatively high rates. People fear that Sindh’s wheat would be smuggled outside the province, causing acute shortage of food in the province. They appealed to the relevant authorities to check the trend and take immediate measures.

A food department official said hat the government had fixed Rs625 per maund and the growers were not ready to sell their product on this rate creating a crisis like situation for the department. He said that they would try to meet the procurement target.