Islamabad, October 09, 2020 (PPI-OT): Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFSR) stands by its reported wheat figures on behalf of provinces. The perception of magnified figure of wheat shortfall is fallacious. This was discussed in the meeting chaired by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research (NFSR), Syed Fakhar Imam with Pakistan Flour Mills Association Chairman, Asim Raza on Friday Minister NFSR, Syed Fakhar Imam gave the official stats of wheat yield i.e. 25.2 million tonnes. Of it, Punjab contributed lion’s share with 2958310 Tonnes while Sindh shared 1259395 tonnes, KPK 84567 tonnes and rest of portion was 65082 tonnes was shaped by Balochistan.
PASSCO was 668041 tonnes .Consequently the total wheat stock in the country was 5080747 tonnes. He mentioned that 0.602 MMT was carry forward Thus the shortfall 1.619 MMT was reported. In retort, Asim Raza showed satisfaction over official stats. Syed Fakhar Imam said that 0.840 MMT of wheat will be imported by public sector till January. And 1.09 MMT tonnes will imported by private sector till January.
Asim Raza apprised that after wheat import the wheat deficit will be covered up .He advised that Minimum Support Price (MSP) should be enhanced so that farmers should halt crop conversion. Syed Fakhar Imam mentioned that NFSR is working to increase the yield of wheat. For this purpose Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSCRD) has tested 200,000 tonnes of seed from the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO). And About 150,000 tones have been tested from Punjab Food Department for emergency.
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