Impact of Procurement Policy of Wheat on Farmers in District Khairpur Mir’s, Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

Wheat crop is the main source of food and is cultivated on the largest area of land, while Punjab and Sindh province are the major contributors. It donates 9.7 percent to agriculture and 1.7 percent to GDP. The objectives of the study are to analyze the impact of procurement policy on the farming community who have been beneficiaries of the policy, and it means observing whether the procurement policy is getting sufficient support to the farmers' community or not. Primary data were collected through a multistage random sampling technique; in the first stage district was selected; in the second stage, taluka was selected; while in the third stage, two union councils (UC) were randomly selected; and in the final stage six villages were randomly selected, and the sample size was 10 respondents from each village. The total sample size was 120. At the same time, Respondents were distributed in two categories: i. beneficiaries of Procurement policy and ii. None beneficiaries of procurement policy. Results show that the cost of production for V-2 and V-3 among Procurement center (PC Growers) and Open Market (OM Growers) growers was almost the same, whereas for variety 1 (V-1), OM growers cost was higher (Rs.56227) than PC growers (Rs.52712). In comparison, the yield for all varieties grown by PC and OM farmers was almost the same, where the PC growers Rs.1400 for wheat grain for all varieties, the OM grower received Rs.1318, Rs.1311, and Rs.1318 for Variety 1(V-1), Variety 2(V-2), and variety 3 (V-3) respectively. The benefit-cost ratio of PC growers for V-1, V-2 and V-3 were Rs.0.54, Rs.0.27 and Rs.0.20, respectively, and the benefit-cost ratio of OM growers for V-1, V-2 and V-3 were Rs.0.40, Rs.0.20 and Rs.0.19, respectively. The procurement center may increase the number of centers, and the quantity of gunny bags should be increased. Before harvesting wheat crop procurements, the center should be announced for purchasing.