20 June 2004	Sunday	01 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, June 19: The Zarai Taraqiati Bank (ZTBL) after its restructuring has been focusing on financing small farmers through one-window operation, revolving finance scheme and micro credit for agricultural loans.

According to a press release issued here on Saturday, the bank's out reach increased by 8.5 per cent, serving 191,370 borrowers during the first five months of current year compared to 176,422 borrowers last year.

During this period (January to May), the bank has disbursed Rs11,956.297 million as agriculture credit to the farming community, while last year the bank managed to disburse Rs11,208.303 million.

The press release said the ZTBL kept its focus on provision of production loans to small farmers and provided 85.4 per cent of its agriculture credit amounting to Rs10,210.542 million to small farmers having land holdings below 25 acres.

Most of these loans, about Rs9,700 million, were in the form of production loans disbursed for the purchase of seed, fertilizer, pesticides etc.

In order to facilitate the farmers to get timely credit, this year 57 per cent more loans were disbursed through one- window operation so that the farmers could save time consumed in visiting offices of post offices, revenue officials and the Zarai Taraqiati Bank branches.

During the same period, the ZTBL had provided Rs6,586.866 out of its total agriculture credit under revolving finance scheme, while during the corresponding period last year the disbursement through this scheme was Rs4,517.689 million.