FAISALABAD, April 20: The University of Agriculture Faisalabad has recommended to the government to give subsidy to farmers on fertilisers, herbicides and insecticides and take effective control over sale and distribution of wheat flour to fight the crisis.

Sources told Dawn that UAF vice-chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmed had asked the faculty members to come up with solutions to the flour crisis gripping the country.

After deliberations, agriculture scientists, led by Agri-Entomology Department chairman Dr Muhammad Ashfaq, submitted proposals to the Punjab government to counter the flour crisis. Admitting that the flour crisis was hitting hard the common man, scientists observed that the principle of “right man for the right job” was being ignored in the food department where non-technical CSP officers had been given assignments temporarily. These officers, they said, had little idea about the department which was not yielding the desired results.

The director and secretary should be posted from within the food department only, they suggested. The government must immediately stop smuggling of wheat into neighbouring countries to meet the country requirements. And the target could be achieved by increasing support price of the wheat; in India, 40kg wheat was being sold at Rs800 approximately, they said.

The agriculture experts observed that there was a lack of supervised permanent distribution system in the country. The food department supplied subsidised wheat to flour mills and there was no control over sale and distribution of flour to the public. This allowed the mill owners to create artificial shortage for overcharging with the connivance of their dealers, they said, suggesting that the government should evolve its own distribution system to eliminate middlemen from the supply line.

Undue interference by the district governments or revenue department should be done away with and the food department made solely responsible for the task, the UAF faculty members said, and added that the food affairs should be considered at the federal level. They also urged the government to revamp the food department for its existing structure was improper and insufficient.

According to them, the rates of inputs used for wheat cultivation were on the higher side and the farmers failed to improve yield. The government should subsidise the rates of inputs before sowing of crop so that the farmers could sow wheat over more area and utilise the inputs at proper time, they suggested.

On the recent spell of rain, scientists said such a spell could affect the wheat yield and quality of the crop. The harvest, they said, should be stored at nine per cent recommended moisture contents for safe storage.

Dr Ashfaq said the UAF had sent recommendations to the government to cope with the predicaments the country has been facing owing to shortage of flour.