The Food Department has increased the wheat procurement target from 535,000 metric tons to 560,938 metric tons for Faisalabad division. Deputy Director Foods Umar Sarwar told APP on Monday that the procurement staff was fully active to achieve the target. In this connection, 41 procurement centres have been established across the division including 11 in Faisalabad, seven at Toba Tek Singh, 18 at Jhang and five centers at Chiniot, where 450,986.126 metric tons of wheat has been purchased so far, which makes 80.40 per cent of the total target. The deputy director said that 61,554.350 metric tons of wheat had been procured from Faisalabad district against the set target of 115,872 metric tons, while 86,475.836 metric tons of wheat had been purchased in Toba Tek Singh against the set target of 115,357 metric tons. Similarly, 252,591.340 metric tons of wheat was procured in Jhang against the set target of 277,040 metric tons, whereas 50,364.600 metric tons of wheat was purchased in Chiniot district against the set target of 52,669 metric tons. As many as 558,459 gunny bags [bardana] were issued to 14,207 farmers across the division, and it was hoped that the set target would be achieved in the stipulated time period, he added.