DADU: Unnecessary delay in distribution of gunny bags have on the one hand caused huge losses to wheat growers in Dadu district by forcing them to sell fruit of their hard labour at low prices to grain traders and on the other hand caused smuggling of wheat out of the province, say growers.

Leaders of Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) and Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) demanded the food department immediately establish procurement centers to purchase wheat from growers and warned if the grain’s smuggling to other parts of the country was not stopped it would cause wheat crisis in the province.

They said the grain traders who had arrived in Dadu from Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta, Multan and Faisalabad were openly smuggling wheat out of the province as well as to Afghanistan under the very nose of district administration and food department.

Growers complained that food department had not yet announced a policy to buy wheat from growers hence they were compelled to sell wheat at as low rates as Rs4,500 per 100 kg bag, Rs500 less than the Sindh government’s support price of Rs5,000 per 100 kg bag.

They said the grain traders had established camps in Johi, Chhandan, Kakar, Gozo, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Mehar, Radhan, Thariri Mohabbat, Jhaloo, Moundar, Phulji station, Piarogoth, Aminiani, Khudabad, Syedabad, Sehwan, Talti, Laky Shah Saddar, Sann, Manjhand and Lakha to buy wheat and smuggle it to different parts of the country through trucks and trailers.

SAI leader Nawab Zubir Ahmed Talpur said that procurement season had already begun but the food department had not yet set up purchase centres. If the officials concerned did not move into action, the smuggling of wheat would cause serious food crisis in the province in the days ahead, he warned.

SAB Dadu chapter’s president Haji Mohammad Omer Jamali complained that growers were compelled to sell the grain at low price to traders of Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Karachi and Afghanistan due to negligence of food department which had not yet set up any procurement centre in the district to purchase wheat. Around 200 trucks loaded with wheat bags were being smuggled daily from the district to other parts the country, he said.

Dharam Das, former SAB leader in Radhan, demanded the Sindh government impose ban on smuggling of wheat out of the province.

Suleman Panhwar, a grower in Chhandan, said that growers were compelled to sell wheat at Rs4,200 per 100 kg bag. Johi area produced the best quality wheat in Sindh hence traders had landed in Johi and bought up the grain at cheap rates, he said.

District Food Controller Mansoor Mirani said that DFC office had proposed to the food department to fix wheat procurement target of 9 million bags for the district. In the last procurement season, the target was fixed at 8 million bags for the district, he said, adding that the DFC office had proposed to the food department to establish 30 procurement centers in the district.

Sehwan SAI leaders, Karimdad, Gul Hassan Rind and Mohammad, said that the area had a bumper wheat crop this year but despite that the growers were worried about selling their produce.

They demanded the food department immediately distribute gunny bags to purchase wheat from growers and complained that all the gunny bags in Sehwan had been distributed among influential and political persons.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2021