HYDERABAD: The Sindh food department is still far away from meeting the wheat procurement target set for the current season because it has bought 264,000 tonnes of the commodity so far.

Given market indicators and growers’ unwillingness to sell wheat to the government, it would not be easy for the government to procure the targeted wheat by May 31.

The Sindh government has set 1.3 million tonnes of procurement target for the season. It recently increased Rs50 in the support price of wheat crop in view of demands of growers, but farmers have rejected the increase, demanding that support price should have been fixed at Rs1,400 per 40kg given the cost of input and international price of the commodity.

While the food department claims that all procurement centres have been opened in Sindh, farmers dispute the claim and said that these were not functional. Not only this but procurement process is replete with certain barriers like issuance of bardana (jute bags) to farmers on deposition of money, payment of wheat which is to be obtained from the Sindh government’s designated bank alone and submission of documents like form-VII and revenue receipts. What is worrying the food department is the fact that open market is offering the same price to wheat growers in cash and that is why they are more inclined towards the open market than the government’s procurement centres to avoid hassle.

In rural areas, growers willingly sell their crop to traders and get cash payment instead of waiting for it for several days. Unless the wheat price in the open market drops, growers would not be selling it to the food department.

“We have procured 264,000 tonnes of wheat until April 17 and we have to achieve the target till May 31 usually,” said Sindh food department Secretary Naseer Jamali. He disclosed that the wheat support price and the open market rate of wheat was same and this was the major reason for slow pace of procurement.

“There are reports of rains in some areas and we expect that the procurement will pick up pace now. But we can’t force anyone to sell grain to us [government],” he said.

He clarified that there was no inter-district ban on wheat’s movement as the ban was provinces-specific.

“I don’t think that the food department will be able to meet its target like previous year. I will be happy if even 50 per cent of the procurement target is achieved on their part,” said Nabi Bux Sathio, general secretary of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture.

“Some MNCs have offered Rs70 premium over and above official support price of wheat for the best quality grain in the name of buying it for seed preservation. They approached me too, but I didn’t have their desired variety of wheat,” claimed Abdul Majeed Nizamani, president of the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB). So, he said, this factor also affected wheat procurement at official level.