BAHAWALPUR, April 1: The Food Department could not kick off its wheat procurement drive as was planned for April 1 owing to less arrival of the commodity from rural areas. DFC Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor said the department had finalized all arrangements for the procurement while the staff on 26 centres in the districts had been appointed.

He expressed the hope that growers would bring their produce to procurement centres within the next few days. He said that a high-level meeting of food officials was being held in Lahore to give final shape to government’s wheat procurement policy in the province.

It may be mentioned that a target of 1.90 lakh metric tons has been fixed for the Bahawalpur district. Meanwhile, the wheat harvesting has been reported from some places in the district. Reports said that about 100 wheat bags were brought for sale to commission agents in the local grain market on Friday. It was learnt that the wheat crop was ready for harvesting in most parts of Sadiqabad areas in the Rahim Yar Khan district. In Bahawalpur district, the crop would be ready within the next fortnight as the temperature started rising here gradually.