The Wheat Scandal; Which is rocket science?

The matter is very simple. You need two bars of molasses for your expenses and you have a whole sack of molasses lying around. The benefit of gold is that if someone tells you no, apart from this sack, if you buy two more sacks, you will certainly not take those two sacks because you already have more than you need. Something similar is currently happening between the government and the farmers.

According to the available information, Punjab province which is the most important in terms of production and consumption of wheat, if the province has 2.3 million tons of wheat and it is more than its requirement, how will it buy wheat from the farmers and How will it be possible to purchase wheat at the official price of 3900 rupees per maund? This problem has become a problem for which wise minds are sitting together and trying to find a solution.

Until yesterday, we used to proudly tell about the tractor rally and protest of the neighboring country’s farmers and today we are facing the same situation, so we have no solution except inquiries. One solution could have been to at least buy the extra wheat from the farmers but here too a tragedy awaits us every year that we don’t have warehouses to store the wheat. On Chichehwatani belt we have to store wheat under open sky by putting tarpaulin. And we have seen what has happened to such deposits in floods and rains.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, according to the Food Minister of Punjab, if the government makes it possible to obtain 4 million tons of wheat every year, then this year this limit will remain up to 2 million tons. While the situation is also uncertain regarding the federal government’s purchase of 2 million tonnes. In this whole matter, the private sector is completely involved in washing its hands in the flowing Ganga. The private sector not only has the capacity to buy wheat but also has the storage to store it. And these two things are missing at the government level, neither money nor warehouses.

Taking advantage of this whole situation, the private sector will buy and store wheat at cheap prices and after June-July, when this current bumper crop will either be sold by the farmers at full price or else it will suffer because it cannot be saved, then the private sector will He will put the wheat in the market and then sell it at high prices to make a handsome profit. Now where does the government stand in this whole matter?

The government has formed a committee under the chairmanship of Justice (retd) Mian Mushtaq which will not only investigate the scandal of excess wheat purchased during the caretaker period but also determine the responsible parties. Everyone is well aware of how these investigations are conducted in Pakistan. And by the time these investigations are done, it will be the turn of wheat cultivation next time. And the tired, oppressed farmer will not go to wheat cultivation next time because he is fed up with the government’s attitude, so a new crisis will await Pakistan. And we’ll be playing probe and probe until then.

And what will happen even if there is an investigation? If only the people involved in the supervisory setup are present in this current government, against whom will the action be taken? And who will be held responsible? Look at the tragedy that we are crying to the caretaker government but the export of wheat continued till March 2024 and according to an estimate in March 2024 wheat worth 57 billion 192 million rupees was exported.

If the farmer is worried, it will definitely be a blow to Pakistan’s agriculture. If the cost per maund is more than 5000 and the price per maund is only 3900 rupees, then how will the farmer cultivate the next crop and how will he meet the cost of this crop? Children’s marriage, their education, building a house, family welfare, debt repayment, etc., are related to the new crop for the farmer, we are not thinking about it.

The sad thing is that even this support price of wheat is not being met and currently wheat is easily available at Rs 3000 to 3600 per maund. The big zamindar will suffer this blow, but the small zamindar is in a double dilemma that he can neither sell the wheat at a low price that does not cover the expenses nor can he keep it as there are no regular warehouses to store it. As a result, he would sell this wheat to the arhats at high prices, which the arhats would store and arrange to sell the wheat bought at cheap prices at high prices.

It can be said that Pakistan is an agricultural country, but the way the agricultural policies are being made, it is not far-fetched that in the near future the title of being an agricultural country will be taken away from us. And the situation we are facing now is that the tragedy of under-cultivation for the next season is waiting for us, that the small farmer will not cultivate more wheat than he needs and we will have shortage of wheat.

Note: ABC Express News and its policy do not necessarily agree with the views of this blogger.

If you also want to write an Urdu blog for us, pick up a pen and write a 800 to 1,200 word essay with your photo, full name, phone number, Facebook and Twitter IDs and a short but concise introduction. [email protected] Email to