Farmers must get minimum guarantee price: Gilani

ISLAMABAD (APP) - Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Mohammad Gondal Thursday called on Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and discussed with him the progress on procuring 6.5 million tons of wheat worth 160 billion from the farmers through PASSCO and Provincial Food Departments in order to meet strategic and operational requirements of the country.
The Prime Minister asked the minister to ensure that the farmers must get minimum guarantee price as pledged by the government while procuring wheat and rice from them.
He asked the minister to personally monitor the setting up of mobile inspection teams to check and to ensure that no violation is being committed in this regard. He also asked him for early convening of meeting on food situation which need to be attended by all stakeholders including the Chief Ministers of all the four provinces.
The Minister informed the Prime Minister that 30,000 tons of wheat which has already arrived at the Gwadar port will soon be transported to Sindh and other parts of the country.
The other vessels containing 600,000 tons of wheat are also arriving soon at Gwadar port, he added.
The minister expressed the hope that the import of this additional quantity of wheat will help in improving the availability of wheat in the country. The rice situation was also reviewed during the meeting and it was observed that due to timely announcement of incentives by the govt, this year yield of rice has touched 6.5m tons which is 4 m tons more than the local consumption. They also reviewed the progress on the earlier decision regarding export of surplus 4m tons of rice. Availability of sugar in the country was also discussed. The Minister informed the PM about the availability of sugar in the country which at present is sufficient to fulfill the local requirement.
The Prime Minister said that in order to meet the strategic reserves of sugar, the decision to import sugar would be taken at an appropriate time. Earlier the Prime Minister held a meeting with the secretaries of the concerned ministries who apprised him of the current status of availability of basic food commodities.