Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo has demanded of the government to ensure effective procurement of whole surplus wheat from the farmers. He said that the government must not be contended with the purchase of merely four million tonnes as announced earlier. The procurement should be without political considerations of the ruling party, he added.
He anticipated in the face of bumper wheat crop this year that the farmers would offer much more than the four million tonnes of wheat for procurement, adding that the procurement target of the government would inevitably push the poor growers at the mercy of the middle man to their acute disadvantage.
He pointed out that growers of rice, sugarcane, maze, wheat and potatoes have been suffering huge losses due to the anti-farmers policies of the current government during the last two years. They cannot withstand the burden of the government policies anymore and would be constraint to take extreme step if pushed against the wall, he warned.
He observed that the responsible governments provided subsidies to the farmers to protect their economic interest. He regretted that the current government had faulted in this count because it backed out of its promises to compensate the rice growers through subsidies.
