The wheat procurement campaign for the year 2012-13 will formally be launched from the April 20 in the wheat producing areas of Punjab province.
An official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research told APP here on Wednesday that food departments of the provinces and other allied institutions have finalized the arrangements for conducting the operation.
He said wheat harvesting season in the Punjab province is expected to formally start from April 15 and will continue for next two-month.
In Punjab, it was cultivated over 16 million acre as against the set target of 16.95 million acre to produce 19.2 million tons of wheat, in Sindh 2.5 million acre against the fixed targets of 2.7 million acre to get out-put of 3.2 million tons, he added.
The harvesting has been started in some areas of Sindh province adding that the process will get momentum in the rest of crop producing areas of the country as currently moisture was observed in fields of standing crop, he remarked.
The government has set the targets to procure about 7.72 million tons of wheat during the wheat procurement campaign for the year 2012-13 to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as to export, he added.
In this regard, he said Punjab has assign the target to procure about 1.30 million ton of the commodity while the Sindh has given the task to purchase about 1.325 million tons of wheat at official fixed rate of Rs. 1050 per 40 kilograms.
Meanwhile, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and Balochistan has set to procure about 0.325 million and 0.100 respectively during the current wheat procurement campaign for keeping the strategic reserves as well, he added. He further said the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) will also procure about 2.00 million ton of wheat across the country.
In this regard, he commented that PASSCO has established 220 centers in 11 zones across the country to start its wheat procurement campaign for the year 2012-13.
All the logistic arrangements have been finalized to procure about 2 million tons of wheat to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as keeping the strategic stocks and export, he added.
