Various initiatives of SBP for uplift, promotion of agri financing laudable

KARACHI: Ateeq ur Rehman (economic & financial analyst) has said that SBP’s various initiatives for promotion and development of agriculture financing in the country is highly appreciable as lack of awareness among farmers about agriculture financing products still remains one of the challenges for Banks, says a Press release.
Farmers and Peasants should be incentivized, encouraged and persuaded to plant wheat, pulses, rice and other agriculture produce to ensure outlay of agriculture produce in abundance. This is only possible once they are being financed, motivated to apply updated and modern skills and use best seeds to get desired results, added Ateeq.
He said that the whole world including Pakistan is facing a serious food security threat which could lead to famine, reasons being, Climate Change, Shortfall of Water and Ballooning Cost of Seeds, Pesticides and Fertilizers, etc. This could be avoided by working on a serious and sincere road map. This would not take long as the outcome is in months not in years.
We have to come back to our past domain of supremacy in agriculture produce in order to overcome the growing inflation and cost of necessary day to day agricultural produce like wheat, rice, pulses, tomatoes, potatoes, onions etc.
Unfortunately Pakistan imported 17 billion worth of Agriculture Produce last year, creating a burden on import bill and balance of payment. This could be avoided in future, easily by sense of planning and urge of attaining targets equally by private and public sector