Daily Times

Strategic wheat stocks of the country are recorded at 8.644 million tons, which are sufficient to tackle with the domestic food requirements as well as maintaining smooth demand and supply in local markets during current food year. The food year in the country starts from May 1 to April 30 every year and government has also allowed import of 3 million tons of wheat to bridge the gap, said Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Dr Imtiaz Ali Gopang. Talking to APP here on Thursday, he said that traditionally government was releasing average 46,300 metric tons per-day, including 25,000 metric tons by Punjab, 10,000 metric tons by Sindh, 5,000 metric tons by Khyber Pakthunkhwa, 1,000 metric tons by Balochistan and average release of 5,300 metric tons by Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation. Out of the total stocks, about 5.143 million metric tons was available with Punjab, whereas Sindh has wheat stocks comprising on 933,006 metric tons, he added. He further informed that the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have grains’ reserves of 233,606 metric tons and 29,630 metric tons respectively, adding that over 2.498 metric tons of wheat were available with PASSCO. Food Security Commissioner said that besides the public sector sector private sector had also procured over 3.172 million metric tons of wheat, out of which about 2.003 million metric tons have been grinded, adding that private sector reserves were so far recorded at 1.139 million metric tons. Dr Imtiaz said that government was taking measures to enhance area under wheat cultivation by ensuring availability of all agriculture inputs including certified seeds, fertilizers and access to credit.