In yet another blow even while Pakistan remains in the grip of a severe economic crisis, the country's wheat output is estimated to fall short of the target for this year by almost three million tonnes.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was informed about this projection in a meeting and now the government is bracing itself to sail through these tough times.
Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that wheat production is projected to be 26.173 million tonnes against a target of 28.89m tonnes while the estimated consumption would be around 30.79m tonnes, reported Dawn.
The reason for this shortage is reduced area under wheat cultivation, shortage of water and fertilizer, and delay in the announcement of support price. Among other issues are oil price hikes and an earlier-than-usual heatwave.
These reasons had led to a shortfall of two per cent in production. In a bid to tackle the situation, the Prime Minister directed the authorities concerned to thrash out a strategy. He also issued directions for stopping wheat theft and for the construction of silos for storage.
The political crossfire continued as Shehbaz blamed this on the previous Imran Khan-led government. He said it was unfortunate that even though Pakistan was an agricultural country, it was importing wheat due to "wrong decisions and delayed strategies".
Shehbaz slammed ex-PM Imran Khan's government for being a party with the wheat hoarders and favouring them. The PM also thrashed the ex-PM for delaying the announcement of the wheat support price.
The meeting was told that Punjab had achieved 91.66 per cent of the procurement target, Sindh 49.68 per cent, Balochistan 15.29 per cent while the Pakistan Agriculture Supplies and Storage Corporation (Passco) had achieved 100 per cent of the target, as per the media outlet.
Expressing his resolve to address the issue, the Prime Minister said that he will make the country self-sufficient in wheat. Among those who attended the meeting were the Minister for Food Security Tariq Basheer Cheema, senior officials of Passco, and the Punjab chief secretary.
( With inputs from ANI )
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