Call for restructuring of ZTBL: Zardari for setting up agriculture transformation fund

President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said agriculture uplift and adequate power generation were two critical areas to overcome Pakistan's economic problems. He said the government should also consider setting up a National Agriculture Transformation Fund for massively injecting new technologies into this vital sector of national economy.
Agriculture in Pakistan was beset by problems of low yield, water scarcity, soil degradation and poor use of inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides besides credit problems faced by small farmers, the President said while addressing a function held at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited gave a presentation to him.
The ZTBL restructuring and revamping team that called on the President included senior policy advisor Professor John Mellor, Dr Amir Mohammed a former Chairman of Parc and Zaka Ashraf, President ZTBL. The meeting was attended by federal agriculture minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Secretary General, Salman Faruqui, secretaries and senior officials of relevant ministries.
The presentation given by Dr Pervaiz Amir highlighted the transformation process of ZTBL and the reforms needed to upgrade the bank to play a much bigger role. President Zardari called for a massive restructuring of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited as an important element of agricultural transformation. "These are the issues that need to be addressed on a priority basis," he added.
He said ZTBL needed to take bold and imaginative measures and gear itself for rapid transformation of agriculture sector by providing supervised credit and new technologies to enhance crop yield and production of livestock, fish, fruits and vegetables. The President said that he would advise the government to make ZTBL independent by granting it greater autonomy to address the challenges of revamping.