Agriculture Loan Disbursement Expands by 27% in Jul-March FY23

Credit access plays a critical loan in the modernization and development of any country’s agriculture sector. Pakistan Agriculture Credit disbursement increased by 27 percent to Rs. 1,221 billion in July-March FY23 compared to Rs. 958 billion in the same period during the previous year. The farm Sector received Rs. 625 billion or 51.2 percent of the total disbursement while Rs. 596 billion went to non-farm sector. Loans provided to small and medium size landholders increased by 37.5 percent and 25.5 percent respectively while credit supply to large economic holdings also increased by 29 percent. In terms of loan purposes, production loans witnessed an increase of 35.3 percent, and farm development loans declined by 13.8 percent. Livestock sector claimed the largest share of 54 percent within non-farm sector loans followed by poultry and fisheries. The government has attributed to the increase in credit supply to initiatives announced under Kissan Package 2022 which included wavering markup on outstanding loans for small landholders, and subsidy on interest-free loans in flood-affected areas.   Currently, forty six (46) financial institutions are providing agriculture credit facilities which include 5 major commercial banks, 13 medium-sized domestic private banks, 6 Islamic banks, 02 specialized banks (ZTBL & PPCBL) and 11 microfinance banks besides 9 Microfinance Institutions/Rural Support Programmes (MFIs/RSPs). The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) also announced the Champion Bank Concept to increase outreach in under-reserved areas by assigning six Regional Agricultural Coordination Committees (RACCs) under six champion banks to lead efforts in underprivileged areas.