PESHAWAR, May 24: Thousands of small growers in Dera Ismail Khan are selling their wheat harvest at a price lower than the officially fixed support price taking a hit to avoid ‘cumbersome’ official wheat procurement process.

Farmers from Dera Ismail Khan told Dawn that small growers were selling their produce to local wheat agents at Rs2,800 per 100kg against the officially fixed wheat support price of Rs3,000.

“It (selling wheat locally) is cost effective, saves time, and helps avoid physical hardship one faces in selling wheat to the government,” said Mohammad Iqbal, a small wheat grower from Gandi Umer Khan, Dera Ismail Khan district.

Umer Khan, another farmer from the district’s Koolachi tehsil said he sold his produce to a middleman because the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Food’s wheat procurement centre at the district became operational very late.

Farmers said that the official wheat procurement centre started wheat procurement more than 10 days after the wheat harvesting seasons commenced in the district.

Wheat growers, particularly small farmers, could not have waited for the official procurement centre to become functional so they started selling their produce to local wheat agents at whatever price they were offered, said Muhammad Moazzam Kamran, vice president of Aiwan-i-Zaraat (chamber of agriculture), Dera Ismail Khan.

Dera Ismail Khan has recorded a bumper wheat crop this season due to above seasonal rains in the rain-fed (barrani) areas. Dera Ismail Khan is among the top three wheat producing districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Out of around one million tons wheat produced locally in the province, more than 75,000 tons are produced in Dera Ismail Khan.

The delay in opening the wheat procurement centre, said Mr Kamran, put pressure on the wheat growers, forcing them to sell their yield without waiting for the official procurement centre to become operational.

“Small farmers cannot withhold their produce because a good number of them have to repay the money they borrow at the cultivation time,” said Kamran.”

Farmer Iqbal said he sold his produce on the spot at his land where a local wheat agent sealed a deal with him at Rs2,800 per 100kg.

“Farmers in our area always prefer local wheat dealers over the official wheat procurement centres,” said Mr Iqbal.

He said that small wheat growers found it difficult to meet the official wheat procurement standards.

“We keep waiting our produce outside the official centres for two to three days only to find out that the quality of our wheat does not meet the official standards,” said Mr Iqbal, adding that the rejection of their produce resulted into huge losses to farmers as they incurred transport charges.

After years of ‘bad experience’ with the official wheat procurement centres, small farmers had stopped taking their produce to the official warehouses. “What use of bothering yourself when you come to know after a wait of two days that your wheat does not fulfil the official standards,” said Umer. By selling their produce to local wheat agents, farmers might receive low price, but they save Rs4,000 to Rs6,000 transport charges incurred by taking the wheat bags to the official wheat procurement centre, according to Mr Umer.

He said most of the farmers were poor and could not afford to withhold their crop for a longer period so they preferred to sell it instantly after the harvest.

“They hardly meet their production costs and save money to take care of their next one year’s expenditure, that is why they prefer to sell their harvest at the earliest,” said Mr Kamran.

A Peshawar-based deputy director of the directorate of food, when contacted, said that the wheat procurement centre at Dera Ismail Khan had so far procured 14,000 tons of wheat.

He said the directorate preferred to purchase wheat from local farmers. Several businessmen from Punjab, he added, too, brought large quantities of wheat from Bhakkar, so the official procurement centre at Dera Ismail Khan made purchases from them as well.

Farmers said a ‘strong clique’ of wheat suppliers from Punjab and certain officials of the provincial government deprived local farmers from an opportunity to get due price of their produce, compelling them to sell the commodity at a lower price.