KARACHI, June 17: All 21 banks involved in disbursement of mandatory agricultural credit offered Rs93 billion loans to farmers in eleven months of this fiscal year, exceeding the full year target of Rs85 billion.

Bankers involved in farm credit distribution told Dawn that five major banks lent Rs44.61 billion to the agriculture sector during July-May 2004-05 surpassing their full year target of Rs38 billon one month ahead. The pace of farm credit supply shows that total credit flow to the farming community would reach Rs100 billion or even cross that mark at the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Habib Bank offered Rs14.82 billion farm loans in eleven months of the current fiscal year, leaving behind its full year target of Rs10 billion. National Bank lent Rs17.09 billion, also higher than its full year target of Rs15 billion.

Muslim Commercial Bank offered Rs5.13 billion farm loans during July–May 2004-05 against its annual target of Rs5 billion and Allied Bank also beat its full fiscal year target of Rs3 billion by lending Rs3.34 billion in eleven months. United Bank, however, is on its way to achieving its target of Rs5 billion set for this fiscal year, as its lending in eleven months totalled Rs4.2 billion.

Zarai Taraqiati (Agricultural Development) Bank Ltd. made Rs32.39 billion farm loans during July-March 2004-05 against its full fiscal year target of Rs34 billion and the Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank lent Rs6.12bn to the agriculture sector during this period against its annual target of Rs8 billion.

Fourteen local private banks disbursed Rs7.8 billion farm credit in eleven months of the current fiscal year, leaving far behind their full year target of Rs5 billion.

These banks include Askari Commercial Bank, Bank Al-Habib, Bank Alfalah, Bolan Bank, Faysal Bank, Metropolitan Bank, PICIC Commercial Bank, KASB Bank, Prime Commercial Bank, Saudi Pak Commercial Bank, Soneri Bank, The Bank of Khyber, The Bank of Punjab and Union Bank.

In the last fiscal year, all the 21 banks had offered Rs73.5 billion loans to the agricultural sector. This constituted 22.6 per cent of the overall private sector credit of Rs325 billion disbursed by the entire banking system.

If agricultural lending totals Rs100 billion during this fiscal year and overall private sector credit disbursement reaches Rs390 billion, the share of agricultural lending in the overall private sector credit would be a little higher 25.6 per cent.

Total private sector credit rose by Rs376.2 billion between July 1, 2004 and June 4, 2005 indicating that it would touch Rs390 billion at the end of the fiscal year on June 30.