Peshawar: Jalal Khan, a progressive farmer who has harvested wheat this season, started visiting various markets to know about real prices and fake gods after hearing the news of wheat price crisis in print and social media. it is reserved to prevent possible financial losses during this season.
The loss of $1,500 to wheat growers for a 40 kg bag has added to the anxiety of thousands of farmers in KP,” he said.
“I have invested all my money for this season’s wheat harvest and I will wait to sell my excess stock after the price rises in the local markets of Peshawar and Nowshera,” he said, hoping the central government and KP would help thousands. people farmers in this difficult situation.
Zilakat Malik, former head of the University of Peshawar’s Department of Economics, told APP on Friday that the wheat price crisis is likely to worsen this year due to poor government decisions and gaps in the supply-demand chain, especially in Punjab. international market.
He said that the low international supply of wheat is likely to reduce exports this season, and the relevant government agencies, the food department in the province will absorb the surplus of wheat to facilitate the farmers.
Dr. Zilakat blamed the grain price crisis on Russia’s invasion of grain-rich Ukraine, and said the blockade of Ukrainian ports, which provided 10 percent of the world’s grain supply at the time of the attack, led to a global food shortage.
He said that in the past, Pakistan was most dependent on Ukrainian wheat as it was 59 percent of our wheat imports and was economical for our country.
However, part of this growth was offset by the grain export agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Last year, when the contract was about to expire, Pakistan and other regional importers said that they began to collect in advance because of the decision to build a fence, and last year saw the amount of land in our country. Due to its high yield compared to other seasonal crops, it is dedicated to wheat cultivation.
International prices were severely affected as Ukraine developed new export routes and recorded crop failures in other countries.
In this situation, he said, most of the farmers in KP, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan are approaching the federal and provincial authorities to fix fair control prices and finance them to get the necessary income from their wheat crops.
He lied on the shoulders of the federal and provincial governments that farmers have stored about four million meters of wheat this season and that they are now increasing this stock as quickly as possible and providing financial packages to thousands of farmers.
Dr. Zialkat Malik said that the KP government earlier complained about the lack of wheat quota and the problem of grain transportation from Punjab, now there is a great opportunity for the KP government to buy maximum wheat from Punjab this year to meet the demands of its people.
Experts appreciate Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s directive to PASCO to start carrying wheat stocks in addition to increasing the purchase limit to register 1.8 million metric tons from 1.4 MMT, which will help the wheat price problem.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa food department told the APP news agency that 300,000 tonnes of wheat will be procured from local farmers and the procurement process has already started.
He said that the price of wheat is $3,900 per 40 kilograms, and $29 billion has been allocated for this purchase.
He said transparent procurement is guaranteed and no lapses will be tolerated.
The spokesperson said that effective coordination between food department and district administration in 37 districts has been done to complete the process of wheat procurement in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The spokesman said the cause was heavy rains and climate change
