LAHORE: In the wake of reports of poor crop this year, the government has decided to ban inter-district wheat movement so that the official target of procuring 3.5 million tonnes of grain in the province may be achieved.

Punjab has cultivated wheat at 16.67m acres this year, a drop of 2.8 per cent in the acreage against its assigned target of over 16.8m acres. Climate change resulting in poor rainfall and abnormal rise in temperature close to the maturity stage of the crop while fertiliser crisis at the beginning of the Rabi season are likely to cause at least 15pc decrease in the overall yield.

Seeing the crop situation, the government had to revise its minimum support price for wheat from Rs1,950 per 40kg fixed at the start of the sowing season and increased it to Rs2,200 to ensure a uniform price across the country because the Sindh government had already announced that it would purchase grain at a rate of Rs2,200 per 40kg.

Move aims at meeting procurement target and curbing smuggling due to high world price

However, the local wheat prices are still far lower than international rates raising fears of grain smuggling to Afghanistan and other countries.

The authorities apprehend that farmers will prefer to retain their crop or sell it to the private sector for a better price, making the task of procuring 3.5m tonnes of grain fairly difficult.

To handle the looming ‘crisis’, provincial authorities have decided to ban inter-district movement of wheat through the district administration. Thus all the deputy commissioners have been directed to impose Section-144 to prohibit movement of wheat out of their respective districts.

Accordingly, check-posts have been established at all exits of each district to impound the vehicles carrying wheat to other areas.

Meanwhile, the agriculture department has sought applications from the farmers of 15 districts interested in sowing sesame seed under the project of increase in oilseed crops production.

The farmers from Bahawalnagar, Khanewal, Vehari, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Chiniot, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Okara, Kasur, Sargodha and Jhelum districts and owning up to 12 acres of land may apply under the scheme to get Rs15,000 per acre for sowing sesame seeds.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2022