HYDERABAD, Feb 24 (APP):The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has urged the Sindh government to fix the minimum support price of wheat at least Rs 4000 per maund for the current year.
The SCA’s President Prof Dr Syed Nadeem Qamar also requested the government, in a statement issued here on Tuesday, to open its wheat procurement centers across the province from March 15 as the wheat harvest had already set in motion.
He also called for increasing the provincial government’s wheat-buying target to 1.5 million metric tons. Qamar pointed out that harvesting was underway in Jhuddo taluka of Mirpurkhas district, Kunri taluka of Umerkot district and Tando Bago taluka in Badin district. “The wheat crop is now ready to arrive in the market,” he underlined.
He lamented that wheat cultivation had decreased by 32 percent in the ongoing season in Sindh, warning that a food security crisis in the country could not be ruled out.
He attributed the drop to the government’s policy of stopping wheat procurement last year. Keeping this in view, the Sindh government should immediately open wheat procurement centers across the province from March 15 and take steps to purchase at least 1.5 million metric tons of wheat from farmers at a minimum price of Rs 4,000 per maund, he said.
He also emphasized the need to maintain sufficient stock in the government’s warehouses for the coming year to prevent any food security crisis.