‘Islamic banking offers solutions to farmers’
A family harvests red chili peppers in Kunri, Pakistan, February 24, 2022. Devastating floods across Pakistan in August and September after several years of high temperatures, have left chilli farmers struggling in a country heavily dependent on agriculture, where officials have estimated $40 billion of flood damages. "When I was a child, the heat was never so intense. We used to have a plentiful crop, now it has become so hot, and the rains are so scarce that our yields have dwindled," farmer Leman Raj, 40, said. REUTERS
There is a need to take measures for supporting farming community for which Islamic banking should come up with tangible measures to fight their economic woes so that the farmers can adopt modern technology that will help achieve food security and contribute towards sustainable economy, said Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, vice chancellor of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad.
He said this at a seminar titled “Islamic Economy and Banking”. He said that 95 percent of the farmers in the country were small farmers who possessed less than five acres of land.
Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that due to economic difficulties, the farmers were reluctant to adopt modern technology.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2022.