Farmers avail 1.1% of Rs50b credit facility for FY19

Balochistan lags behind other provinces in dispersing agri credit to farmers, FCA told

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture on Thursday was informed that Balochistan lagged behind all other provinces in provision of agricultural credit to farmers.

The farmers of Balochistan have availed only 1.1 per cent of their share in agricultural loans from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and other commercial banks while those of Punjab have taken loans amounting to Rs590 billion or 66 per cent from their available share.

The committee was presented with details of the agricultural loans extended by the ADB and other banks for the current fiscal year till February.

According to the documents available with the Express, countrywide farmers have taken Rs701 billion agricultural loans against the total allocation of Rs1,250 billion for the fiscal year 2018-19.

In agricultural loans, farmers of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have availed the highest amount while those of Balochistan have availed the least.

Of the total allocation of Rs890 billion for Punjab, till February loans of around Rs590 billion were procured by farmers, which constitutes 66.3 per cent of the total amount.

In Sindh, agricultural loans amounting to Rs97.9 billion have been dispersed from the available target of Rs261.5 billion, which is 37.4 per cent of the target.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Rs10.2 billion loans of the available credit of Rs43 billion have been released to farmers, which is 23.9 per cent of the total amount.

In Balochistan, Rs0.6 billion has been released to farmers against the available credit facility of Rs50 billion, which is 1.1 per cent of its target.

In AJK, Rs2.3 billion has been dispersed out of the total credit facility of Rs2.4 billion, which amounts to 98 per cent of the total target.

Similarly, the target for Gilgit-Baltistan was Rs3.2 billion of which Rs0.4 billion or 13.4 per cent has been released.