Lahore, JULY 11, 2011: Inappropriate preservation may cause damage to the wheat during current monsoon season, as 2.5 million tonnes of the commodity is lying in open spaces.
Director Food Najam Ahmad Shah told APP here Sunday that Punjab government had procured 3.2…………
Lahore, JULY 11, 2011: Inappropriate preservation may cause damage to the wheat during current monsoon season, as 2.5 million tonnes of the commodity is lying in open spaces.
Director Food Najam Ahmad Shah told APP here Sunday that Punjab government had procured 3.2 million tons wheat in the procurement drive this year, while 1.8 million tons had already been lying in godowns.
Najam Shah said, out of the current year’s 3.2 million tons wheat, only 0.7 million had been preserved in available space of godowns, while the remaining quantity of 2.5 million tons had been procured in the open spaces by covering the grain with trampoline and polythene sheets.
Though Food Department in co-ordination with other relevant departments including meteorological office has been taking care of the commodity procured in the open space on daily basis, the wheat grain is still at risk of natural calamity, such as flood.
To a question, he said, a ‘risk cover programme’ had also been evolved to shift the wheat to safe places in case of flood like situation, and special embankment had been constructed around the preservation centres to save the commodity from rain and flood water. However, during the last year’s devastating floods, 21,000 tons of wheat out of the total 85,000 tons, which was laying in eight centres of food departments in DG Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur, was damaged, he added.
Courtesy: Associated Press of Pakistan
