SAHIWAL: On the demand of local farmers, digital weighing machines will be installed in seven tehsil headquarters of Sahiwal division so that farmers get the accurate weight and subsequently better deals for their crops and produce from commission agents.

This was decided in a high-level agriculture task force meeting chaired by Commissioner Nadir Chattha at his office on Friday morning.

Elaborating the reasons for installing the digital machines, the commissioner said it was a long-standing demand of the local growers because they were exploited by middleman and commission agents through traditional means of weighing when their produce was brought for sale in the open market.

He added that in each 40-kilo bag, half to 1kg of the produce was deducted. Secondly, some of the produce was wasted while being shifted from a tractor trolley to a traditional weighing machine. The meeting participants were told that each digital weighing machine cost around Rs1.5 million that will be installed with the financial assistance of market committees.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2020