ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has asked the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to set up monitoring teams to ensure that growers received the official wheat price of Rs950 per 40kg for their new crop.

The government will spend Rs160 billion on procurement of 6.5 million tons of wheat from farmers this season. Last year’s procurement target of five million tons could not be achieved.

During a meeting here on Thursday, the prime minister asked Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal to personally monitor the situation and ensure timely procurement and transparency in the process.

Mr Gilani said the ministry should convene a meeting on food security. It should be attended by all stakeholders and chief ministers of the four provinces.

Mr Gondal briefed the prime minister on efforts to achieve this year’s wheat procurement target through the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Supplies Corporation (Passco) and provincial food departments. He said that cooperation of the food departments was needed to achieve the target.

He said that 300,000 tons of imported wheat had arrived at the Gwadar port and it would soon be transported to Sindh and other parts of the country. He said other consignments of about 600,000 tons of wheat would soon arrive.

They also discussed the rice situation. Mr Gondal said that because of timely announcement of incentives by the government, production of rice this year had reached 6.5 million tons. The local demand was 2.5 million tons and the remaining four million tons were being exported, he added.

The wheat sowing area has registered a six per cent increase this season and the government hopes to achieve the production target of 25 million tons.

According to provincial crop reporting services, wheat was cultivated on 9.053 million hectares, up from last year’s 8.54 million hectares, and surpassing this year’s target of 8.61 million hectares.