UN starts wheat aid to 500,000 Pakistani farmers

Some 2.4 million hectares of farmland were damaged by the floods, UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation stated. – AFP (File Photo)

ROME: The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said it had begun large-scale distribution of wheat seed in Pakistan to 500,000 farming families affected by catastrophic floods earlier this year.

The aid means the current planting season that ends in December will still take place, the FAO said in a statement, adding that it would also provide vegetable seeds and fertilizer and assist livestock farmers.

Wheat procurement suspended in Dadu

 DADU, April 9: Food officials suspended wheat procurement at the designated centres of the district on Friday to protest against threats allegedly hurled on the district food controller (DFC) by State Minister for Food and Agriculture Rafique Ahmed Jamali and his brother forcing them to provide more gunny bags.

They gathered outside the DFC office in Dadu and demonstrated against the two.

Sindh wheat crop to cross 3.7m tons mark

KARACHI: Wheat production in Sindh is likely to exceed 3.7 million tons target and finally end up somewhere near four million tons.
The province produced 3.6 million tons of wheat last year.

The estimates have been revised by agriculturists after reports that some more areas in Badin and other districts have come under wheat cultivation for Rabi crop now being harvested.

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.