ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) should encourage loans for silos-type godowns and storage so that farmers can fetch proper prices for their produce, State Bank governor Dr Ishrat Hussain said.

He was speaking at the concluding session of a three-day regional manager’s convention of ADBP at its head office.

He said now “we are producing surplus food. Agriculture has micro economic consequences”. “It is less increase in the prices of our agriculture produce that brings down the over all inflation rate. The major portion of our exports, about 65 per cent, comes from agriculture.”

Mr Hussain said to take full advantage of agricultural production, it was necessary to concentrate on value addition. He said the government and the ADBP should facilitate the farmers and other related people in processing, refrigeration, transportation and marketing of agri produce, so that it could be preserved and made exportable.

“We should pay attention to the production of food and vegetable and their process for exports. We should explore our coastal resources to develop fisheries sector which has enormous potential for exports,” the State Bank governor said.

“Our horizon should not be just Pakistan. We need to capture other markets like China, where there is great potential for livestock sector, and take over the market from European Union and the US.”

Dr Hussain advised the regional managers that they should look to the future. He said they were the ones who had the direct relationship with the farmers, and knew the particular area and its potential, so they were in the best position to give ideas.

He said the ADBP staff was well educated and had expertise that very few possessed. He said the ADBP had a better network in rural areas than the commercial banks and was in a better position to serve the farmers and rural population due to the expertise and close relations with them.

The governor asked the regional managers to come up with new products, with new ways of delivering services to the farmers to help them out.

He told them that with the conversion of ADBP from a public sector organization to a public limited company, they had a great freedom and flexibility to carry out the actions according to their plans and they would be at a liberty to demonstrate their abilities.

Earlier, in his welcome speech, the ADBP chairman, Istaqbal Mehdi, said the regional managers had the most important role to play. He told Mr Hussain that during the convention, various issues and problems faced by the bank were discussed.

A number of recommendation have been passed to make the ADBP customer friendly, he added.