Pakistan: Another flour crisis looming in Punjab

Faisalabad [Pakistan], November 21 : Amid countrywide protests over rising inflation and price hike on food items, Pakistan has to brace up for yet another wheat flour crisis that is in the offing in Punjab.
The food department informed that most districts of the province have run out of the commodity's stock and the new crop yield is still four to five months away, reported The News International.
The failure to increase wheat production per acre and alleged corruption and mismanagement in wheat procurement and storage at the government level has raised fears of another flour crisis in the country.
Flour mill owners are also shutting down mills due to the rising cost of rent because of the procurement of government wheat from other districts.
Agricultural experts believe it is not possible to overcome the flour crisis in the country without increasing acreage and subsidizing farmers, reported The News International.
Apart from this, there is corruption in the procurement of sacks and other expenses incurred by the Food Department for the storage of wheat.
In this regard, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have been proposing to the government for many years that the Food and Market Committees be abolished as they are a burden on the national exchequer, reported The News International.