HYDERABAD: Sindh Growers Alliance (SGA) has blamed the government of Sindh for causing financial losses to farmers by delaying the wheat procurement drive in several major districts and divisions of the province.
Sindh government has yet not established wheat procurement centres in several parts of the province, which has forced growers to sell their produce to exploitative traders, concerned growers informed The News on Friday.
They said that despite the tall claims made by the provincial government about establishing procurement centres and fixing the price of wheat at Rs1,400/maund, growers were being exploited by the private sector traders, who were buying wheat at Rs1,150-Rs1,200/maund.
Sindh Growers Alliance (SGA) President Nawab Zubair Talpur said there was no procurement centre in the entire Sukkur division, Mirpurkhas division, Matiari, Dadu, Tando Muhammad Khan and other districts, and growers in these areas were looking for these facilities to sell their product on time.
He said the government authorities did not offer gunny bags to farmers, so they might believe that they had no choice but to sell their product to the private sector. Talpur said it was a violation of the government decision, which allowed officials at district level to set up procurement centres instantly and provide access to growers to avoid any crisis.
In the current situation, people were already frightened due to the pandemic and wanted to sell the product so they could stay at home in isolation.
“I have personally spoken to the growers in all these areas, who confirmed that no procurement centres have been established where they could sell the grain,” Talpur said.
The government had announced establishment of 517 procurement centres in convenient places of the districts to facilitate farmers, so they could sell their product at the official support rate of Rs1,400/maund.
Since the government has taken an initiative to ban all business activities except essential services to contain the spread of Covid-19, it has also taken a toll on the wheat procurement drive.
Zubair Talpur pointed out that a few procurement centres have been established in Tando Allahyar, Umerkot and some other places; however, farmers were facing difficulties in several districts due to the absence of centres, which enabled private traders to exploit growers.
“These private sector traders will sell wheat to flourmills on a higher rate, which will also result in an increase in the price of flour,” he predicted. This in turn would impact the common man, he added.
“It seems the government does not have any check and balance to monitor the situation and save the producers, mainly small-scale growers.”
SGA leader said the government has set a target of purchasing 1.4 million ton wheat, which, in his understanding was short, because the province produces more wheat. Thus, he suggested revising the target to two million tons instead of 1.4 million tons, so growers might heave a sigh of relief.
Some researchers said the government had designed wheat procurement policy in 1980, which was revised in 2002. Now the situation has changed globally due to climate change, and the government needed to revise the policy to save growers and avoid food insecurity in the province.
Advocate Sher Muhammad, a leading grower of Sukkur division, said wheat harvest has started and threshers were operating in Kashmore, Ghotki and other parts of the division.
However, he said not a single procurement centre has been set up to offer gunny bags and purchase the product. He reminded the previous year’s situation, “when the government failed in setting up a single procurement centre and allowed private traders to purchase the grain”. Later, people had experienced the crisis of flour shortage and increase in prices of other food products, he lamented.
