ISLMABAD, Jan 28: The country would be able to meet the wheat production target of 25 million tons despite a 50 per cent shortfall in availability of urea fertiliser, the committee on agriculture was told on Wednesday.

A meeting of the committee, presided over by Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Mohammad Gondal, was attended, among others, by Information Minister Sherry Rehman, Minister for Industries and Production Manzoor Ahmed Watto, Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and Minister for Local Government Abdur Razaq Thaheem.

Officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture informed the committee that wheat cultivation area had risen by seven per cent, or over 22 million acres, this season.

They said the government’s procurement price of Rs950 per 40 kg had given an impetus to farmers to sow more wheat.

Mr Gondal said that unlike in the past, timely efforts would be made this season to achieve the wheat procurement target of 6.5million tons through aggressive buying right from the beginning.

He said the agriculture ministry had proposed allowing the Pakistan Agriculture Supplies and Storage Corporation (Passco) to procure wheat from growers after harvest across the country.

He said that provincial governments were being taken on board to ensure the government achieved the target.

The committee was briefed on the situation of major crops such as wheat, rice, cotton, sugar cane and the measures the Ministry Food and Agriculture and other authorities concerned had taken for food security.

Informed sources told Dawn that officials of the federal food ministry blamed provincial governments for the urea fertiliser shortage, saying the food ministry was not authorised to take any action against hoarders and blackmarketers of fertiliser because only provincial governments could take action against them.

The meeting was unable to suggest an immediate solution to the urea shortage.

The government has set the official price of urea at Rs650 a bag, but it is being sold at Rs950 to Rs1000 a bag in the open market.

The committee was also unable to review the progress made since Dec 18 by the ministry of industries and provincial governments to ensure availability of fertiliser to farmers. On that day, the ministries of industries and agriculture had jointly made a plan to control fertiliser price and ensure its supply during the wheat harvest.

After last month’s meeting, the ministry of industries had directed all local urea manufacturers to surrender half of their stocks to the government so that it could sell it immediately through the Utility Stores Corporation.

But, despite procurement of 50 per cent stocks (350,000) from urea manufacturers and arrival of additional 190,000 imported urea by Jan 15, little has changed for farmers as they have to pay more than the officially fixed price of urea after standing in long queues.

An official announcement said the committee had decided to devise a mechanism to ensure that consumers got flour at reasonable rates. The committee decided to take measures to encourage the private sector to procure wheat from farmers this season through easy access to loans and the State Bank of Pakistan would be requested to formulate a policy in this regard.

Officials said the committee felt that any ban on the movement of wheat, either inter-district or inter-provincial, would harm both growers and consumers in food-deficient provinces.

The meeting decided to form a sub-committee on rice to deal with issues related to production, procurement and exports. The committee would comprise officials of the provincial governments and other stakeholders.