Rains may ruin 3mn tons of wheat lying in the open

ISLAMABAD: A slow lifting of wheat by the provinces may develop into a crisis in the coming weeks as more than three million tons of the produce stocked in the open could be damaged in case of rains.

The governments in the four provinces, Northern Areas and the Azad Kashmir have been very slow in lifting the wheat from the government stocks because they still had carryover from last year as well as the imported commodity to consume, sources in the food ministry said.

Sindh’s lifting of wheat is less than half the quantity of last year, while Punjab is gradually increasing releases to the flour mills, these sources said, adding total lifting of wheat by all the provinces and other areas is about 26,000 tons per day against more than 40,000 tons same period last year.


These sources said that a major chunk of over three million tons stocks that are lying outside in the open could be damaged in case of rains and environmental moisture although stocks available with food departments are properly covered with Tarpaulin and placed on secure plinths. Sources in the Punjab government said there were large quantities of wheat in the open lacking proper storage facilities and could catch ground moisture.

At the same time, wheat sowing this year is almost on target, which is expected to improve per acre yield and overall production. This would mean that the country would have highest ever carryover stocks when the new crop starts arriving in April next year, leaving a lot of exportable surplus, the sources said.

The government will have to take an immediate decision to allow wheat export now otherwise it would become difficult to handle huge stocks after few months, sources said.

They further said the government should have considered not procuring next year crop but that would have sent a wrong signals to the growers. That is why the government has already announced to procure at least 7.5 million tons next season at official rates to ensure better output.

Federal Agricultural Development Commissioner Qadir Buksh Baloch said that the country had about eight million tons of wheat stocks as of November, almost 300 per cent more than last year’s 2.7 million tons.

He, however, said that the arrangements, including fumigation and covers, made by provincial food departments were sufficient and could protect the produce for three years.

Mr Baloch said the sowing was in full swing and hoped that sowing target ofover nine million hectare would be achieved. So far, sowing on about 4.8 million hectare has been completed, which accounts for 54 per cent of target but about four per cent less than 5.1 million hectares of the same time last year.

He said Punjab was given a sowing target of 6.8 million hectare for the year and so far sowing has been completed on about 3.7 million hectare against 4.1 million hectare last year. Sowing in Sindh has reached 0.38 million hectares against a target of one million hectares last year’s same period sowing of 0.34 million hectare.

In NWFP and Balochistan sowing is almost the same as last year.

Mr Baloch said the farmers were able to produce 24 million tons of wheat last season because they were offered international prices that resulted in increase in per acre yield to 27 maund from 24 maund a year before. Next season, the target is to increase per acre yield to 30 maund to achieve 25 million tons of production target.