May 26, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 13,1423

LAHORE, May 25: Embarking on a policy of ‘broadening horizons’ and responding to the new needs and challenges of the sector it serves, the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) has formulated a credit plan worth about Rs4 billion for water management and ‘priority items’, comprising water friendly and import substitution crops.

Foreseeing problems arising out of water shortage and vital but untapped avenues of investment in the sector, the bank’s management has identified areas where it can play a role in the sustainability of Pakistan’s agriculture by breaking out of its convention and tradition bound shell.

It is in this context that water management is being focused on, says ADBP chairman Istanbul Mehdi, elaborating that investments need to be made for harnessing available water resources for more productive use and support efforts for preserving water and promoting machinery, techniques and crops that help produce more with less water and serve to scuttle the food imports bill.

The plan aims at funding the lining of water courses to control seepage and loss of water at the users-end, promoting drip and sprinkler irrigation systems that minimize use of water, back the building of mini and check dams and provide funds for de-salinization plants with a view to supplementing existing water resources.

The new approach envisages provision of micro credit for land development with scrapper and laser methods and for promoting bed planting that are the latest cultivation techniques for conserving water resources and extracting the maximum from available water resources. Small tractors, drills and planters would also be covered by the plan.

The plan includes installation of tube wells and turbines for the exploitation of ground water resources to meet the shortfall of irrigation water and augment this resource for watering crops.

A notable aspect of the plan, said Mehdi, was assisting growers to switch over to crops that consumed less water and to those that would help reduce dependence on certain items that were currently imported and cost a hefty foreign exchange bill to the exchequer.

Crops and commodities on the ADBP inventory include, among others, specifically tea, palm oil and olive oil that, according to the bank’s officials, would on the one hand, reduce the burden of import and on the other, explore new areas for the agriculture sector.