ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Kissan Package has managed to disburse agricultural loans worth Rs 663.9 billion in the month of November to flood-hit farmers in dire need of recuperation. The amount of loans disbursed is expected to go up to Rs 800 billion by the end of December.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Minister for Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema said that the agriculture loan was the component of Prime Minister Kissan Package of Rs 1,819 billion to revive Pakistan’s agriculture sector, particularly restoring the agriculture of areas affected by catastrophic floods during monsoon season.
He said the package comprised 15 main points to restore and revive the agriculture sector in the country in order to ensure food safety and security in the country, adding that significant progress has been made in all the points.
Kissan package
On October 31st this year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a Rs1,800 billion subsidy package for farmers affected by this year’s catastrophic flooding. It was a splashy announcement that promised among other things loans, sufficient availability of fertilisers, cheap financing for tractors, and a reduction in electricity tariff to a fixed rate.
The issue of agriculture, however, is pressing and beyond solving by a single subsidy scheme. The details are already public knowledge. Under the package, the government will give Rs10.6 billion loans to small farmers across the country while small farmers of flood-hit areas would get loans worth Rs 80 billion. In addition to the interest-free and subsidised loans, subsidies will also be given on farm imports such as fertilisers, electricity, seeds, and even tractors.
If implemented correctly, the package will have a wide-reaching impact in helping farmers affected by this year’s floods back on their feet. But that is as far as it can and should go. The scale of the problem faced by our agricultural sector will not be fixed by any subsidy package. At most, any subsidy will provide temporary relief. For too long the state has allowed the country’s agriculture to suffer and have offered only stop-gap solutions such as subsidy packaged. We have been papering over the cracks for so long that our entire agrarian economy has grown dependent on subsidy packages.
Already dogged by these problems, our beleaguered farmers now face a serious threat from climate change as well. Weather patterns are wild and erratic, going from drought to flood within a matter of months.
If Pakistan is to move forward on the agricultural front, which it must if it wants to maintain food security, we will have to shift our focus from subsidies to actual research and development. Agriculture is still the largest component of our economy, and fixing it will take persistent, daily, dedicated, single-minded focus. It is the need of the hour, and with the effects of climate change knocking on our doors there has never been a more urgent moment in time to try and fix it.
Minister’s statements
Cheema further informed that for the first time in history, the Prime Minister Youth Business and Agriculture Loan Scheme was introduced to engage youth in the agriculture sector to get maximum dividends for the young population, besides providing them employment opportunities in this sector.
He said despite the fiscal and financial crunch, the SBP has issued notifications of all the above-mentioned schemes, and prices of fertilisers were also brought down under markup and risk management scheme, adding that prices of DAP fertiliser came down from Rs 13,000 to Rs 9,000 per bag and sufficient quantity was also available for local farmers.
Besides, he added, Rs 30 billion was also allocated for the subsidy on imported urea and it would be provided in a transparent manner in collaboration with the provincial governments. Under the package, an amount of Rs 4.787 billion comprising 75 percent of agro-based small and medium enterprises were also disbursed, besides the government has also initiated interest-free loan for landless farmers and the central bank has also issued a circular to commercial banks to disburse Rs 5 billion to all eligible farmers, he added.
The minister said that under the special directives of the prime minister, the value of PIU was enhanced from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000, adding that the Finance Division has already notified that it would equally benefit the large and small-scale growers. Besides, he said, a summary was also moved to allow the import of 3 years used tractors to facilitate the local growers and introduce mechanised agriculture in the country. The ministry was also negotiating with private banks to provide financing facilities for the import of used tractors, he added.
The minister further informed that the electricity tariff for farmers was reduced and the government was also working to chalk out a mechanism to provide affordable electricity to agricultural tube wells and it was intended to convert electric tube wells to solar energy. “This would help in reducing the cost of inputs and produce competitive agricultural goods.”
Cheema said due to hard work and efforts of the government, bumper wheat output was expected during the current season as crop sowing was completed over 91 percent of set targets for the 2022-23 season, adding that grains sowing was completed over 21 million acres as against the set targets of 22.85 million acres.
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Agri loan this govt initiative is highly appreciated. best for Kiasan and his productivity