ISLAMABAD: Former President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Dr Shahid Rasheed Butt said on Saturday that progress of the most important sector of agriculture is tied to financing of the banks.
“Agricultural development through budget measures is a guess at best and the most important sector will continue to face uncertainty. All the governments have admitted that agriculture is the cheapest way to eradicate poverty and ensure development but tall claims were always preferred over action,”.
He said that the country’s agriculture development policies had always backfired while the policies in the neighbouring countries had worked well beating ‘our per acre yield’ with a wide margin, he said.
The veteran business leader noted that we are importing food items despite having four seasons and the best canal system in the world irrigating 4.1 million acres of land which is enough to feed fifty crore people.
He said: “The biggest obstacle in the agriculture development is the deficiency of capital when required as many banks simply do not exist for the majority of small farmers and they can only satisfy their needs from loan sharks. Banks supposed to support agriculture are helping landlords while the figures of agriculture loans are misleading as they end up in pockets of the influential landed nobility and industrialists,” he said adding that if businesses could not operate without capital, how can farmers operate without it.
The banking sector in Pakistan is not inclined towards agriculture due to a lack of knowledge and prejudice while their attitude to ignore small farmers amounts to keep them in the clutches of the loan sharks and intermediaries. He said that the bankers would continue to ignore rural economy as long as the bankers are properly educated regarding agriculture and Pakistan would continue to be a net food importer despite an agricultural country.
He noted that there are vast gaps between the acquired and actual output of produce, which suffers due to a lack of apathy of banks, inappropriate technology, use of inputs at improper times and unavailability of water. Inadequate education about insect pest control and inefficient use of resources not only negatively affects the produce but also significantly reduces the amount of produce.