KARACHI: Banks need to explore financing to all clusters of agriculture, with particular focus on reaching out to small farmers and adopting innovative credit methodologies, a seminar was told on Monday.

Two known international experts, Calvin Miller from FAO and Dr Prasun Das from Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA), shared best global practices of various value chain financing models during the seminar on “Agricultural Value Chain Financing”, organised by the State Bank in collaboration with UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The seminar was attended by around 100 participants, particularly senior executives of commercial banks and SBP officials.

Addressing the audience, SBP’s Samar Hasnain highlighted the central bank’s strategy of working closely with the banking and agriculture sectors for meeting the growing demand of agri-credit in the country.

He said banks have already achieved 58 per cent of the annual target of Rs500 billion for agri-credit disbursements in the first eight months (July-Feb) of this fiscal year.

FAO representative Nasar Hayat highlighted the efforts and assistance that the organisation has been extending to Pakistan in building and strengthening the national agriculture infrastructure in the country.

He emphasised the need of an inclusive and efficient agricultural and food system. In particular, he shared FAO’s activities to support small farmers of Balochistan to improve their production yield and market access.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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