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KABUL: Farmers across Helmand are protesting that the wheat crop is being smuggled to Pakistan with considerably cheap prices.
Wheat smuggling has even triggered a spike in flour prices in the southern Helmand province, farmers have said.
If the government didn’t pay attention to the issue, they said that the province would be facing with the shortage of flour.
An economic expert, Lal Mohammad Safa said that Afghanistan is a situation of needing more flour for its citizens and that the wheat smuggling place the province to the shortage of the flour that could create sever challenges for the residents.
Head of the provincial agriculture department, Zalmai Aloko confirmed the issue, saying that they have shared the problems with the government and related departments.
According to him, there have been some initial progresses in this regards after the government take action against it.
According to the provincial agriculture department, over 15,500 hectares of land was cultivated wheat which produce an estimation of 443,000 tons wheat.
Helmand is among insecure provinces in southern Afghanistan and is considered as the biggest opium producer, as the government is struggling to take the whole control of the province.
