ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif formally launched the credit guarantee scheme for financial empowerment of small farmers of country here on Friday.
This scheme will help small farmers to get easy loans from commercial and development banks for production of staple crops thus acute poverty will be reduced in the agriculture sector.
Finance minister, minister for national food security & research, governor state bank and deputy governor SBP were present at inauguration ceremony.
PM said that government was serious for agricultural growth and development by empowering farming community. Increase in per-acre yield is a significant part of its manifesto. Besides appreciation of banks’ role in sustainable economic development, Prime Minister directed bank managers to facilitate small farmers and marginalized segments of country. In his address, he appreciated finance minister and governor state bank of Pakistan for devising this scheme in consultation with all stakeholders.
Finance minister Ishaq Dar highlighted innovation in agriculture and its close link with the industry. He also appreciated good performance of banks in last three quarters of current fiscal year. On a question of Customs Today’s representative, Ishaq Dar categorically said that merger of commercial banks was conducive for efficiency and performance.
Minister for national food security, Sikandar Hayat Bosan said that credit guarantee scheme is a milestone which would help farmers in cutting costs in inputs use, transportation, trading and safety of crops. It will definitely boost agricultural GDP of the country including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
According to governor SBP Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, agriculture financing especially value chain financing and market information infrastructure have been steadily increasing in the country. In current fiscal year, agriculture financing portion would be 53 percent that was 37 percent in 2009-10. Small farmers were taking expensive loans from middlemen and credit guarantee scheme will help getting loans on soft terms.
