Islamabad: The agriculture experts have asked the government to delay the release of the wheat quota for two months.
The agriculture experts on the condition of anonymity told this scribe that the government should keep in mind the ground realities including the wheat prices with regard to releasing of wheat quota.
Explaining the reason, they said that the wheat crisis comes just before the arrival of new wheat crops so, therefore, the government should issue quotas to flour mills after October.
The wheat in these months would be available in large quantities while prices will also not increase, they added.
They also said that the government has not released this year’s wheat quota to flour mills even though there is no shortage of flour in the market.
Abundant flour is available in the open market as well as in utility stores, they stated.
Agricultural experts said that the government should also decide to release wheat quota for Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur divisions keeping in view the ground realities and if the government releases better wheat for these divisions, then the whole Punjab will never have a flour crisis.
They explained that both these divisions are wheat procurement markets. General (r) Musharraf government had released 968,000 tonnes of quota to the flour mills of the Rawalpindi division in 2006-07 while the incumbent government issued 1190,000 tons in 2018-19 and 910,000 tonnes in the year 2019-20.
They have a point of view that the population of the Rawalpindi division has increased tremendously during this period and the official quota of wheat for the flour mills of this division is insufficient for the local needs.
On the other hand, according to government sources, ample stocks of wheat are available in the market and there is no need to issue a government quota immediately this year.
