Farmers sell wheat to traders as Sindh delays establishing procurement centres

HYDERABAD: Sindh growers have expressed concerns over provincial government’s delaying tactics when it comes to opening wheat procurement centres, as harvesting and threshing have already started in many areas.

Information gathered from different districts reveals that farmers in parts of Badin, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Tando Muhammad Khan, Thatta, Hyderabad and Matiari started harvesting and threshing from February 15.

The government has set wheat procurement target for 2021 at 1.4 million tons, and announced support price as Rs2,000/maund. However, the Sindh government has yet not established procurement centres in any districts of the province for the farmers to sell their product at proper rates.

Gunny bags have not been provided either. Gunny bags enable farmers to sell their produce safely and transparently from their farm to the procurement centres.

Muhammad Rahim Lakho, a farmer from Jhirak, Thatta district said he has already sold more than 800 maund to traders at Rs2,000-2,150/ maund. In the starting, the rate was Rs2,150/ maund, which was going down gradually.

He said that the rates would likely fall further down the road as traders buy a bulk of the product from farmers. Once that happens, he believed that farmers would face hardships in receiving the government’s fixed rate of Rs2,000/maund, as there were no official procurement centres, he added.

Sindh Growers Alliance (SGA) President Nawab Zubair Talpur, while talking to The News, raised concerns due to the government’s apathetic approach, and said they feared that the authority might provide bags to traders instead of growers.

“We have been observing this for the last four years that the government remains cruelly negligent, and allows traders to purchase wheat at low rates, depriving farmers of their right,” he added.

If the government persists in this behaviour, there might be a wheat shortage, further adding to the woes of the public who were already buying wheat at Rs70/75/kg because of previous negligence.

Last year, the government allowed traders to buy wheat at Rs1,100-1,200/maund against the support price of Rs1,400/maund (40kg). After allowing traders to purchase wheat at low rates, the government’s food department officials had started conducting illegal raids at private warehouses.

From those warehouses, the officials had taken away seeds that the farmers had stocked for next year’s sowing as well as for personal consumption. Some growers allege that the officials took these actions to hide their own inefficiency, especially to cover up for their failure in establishing wheat procurement centres.

The farmers demanded the government to provide gunny bags following Form-7 to farmers to avoid violation. They said last year, the authorities provided bags to traders, who purchased wheat at low rates, exploiting farmers and depriving them of their right.

Growers hold such tactics responsible for wheat shortage in the province, and warned that if the same situation persisted this year, public would be forced to buy wheat flour at much higher rates. They said it could go up to Rs100/kg or higher on flour.