The cash-starved Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) has a Rs 30 billion at stake in the flood hit areas across the country, bank's senior managers told Business Recorder here on Monday. They said this premier public sector financial institution had loaned billions of rupees to the farmers to uplift the agriculture and rural sector by raising farm productivity and increasing income generating capacity of the farming community.
They said the bank gives development loans for purchase of items like farm machinery/tractors, irrigation, land development, orchard/green houses, on-farm godowns/storage, dairy, poultry, fishery, livestock farming. However, they admitted that due to non-recovery of a large number of loans, the bank has stopped advancing loans for the purchase of tractors and other farm machinery since June 2010.
Meanwhile, sources in local tractor manufacturing industry told this scribe that ZTBL had given a supply order of 5,000 tractors to one unit against the bank's loans to the farmers. "We have manufactured these tractors and they are ready for delivery, but the bank is not issuing bank drafts to the farmers to take delivery of the tractors," they added.
In this regard ZTBL senior managers said, "at present we have no money to issue bank drafts to the farmers whose applications had already been sanctioned for the purchase of tractors." However, they said that the bank has the reserve funds to help the farmers in the affected areas for procurement of seed and other required items for their crops. The government has already waived off ZTBL loans for the crops and agriculture tax in the flood affected areas to compensate the farmers for their losses.
It may be added that according to official estimates Pakistan had suffered losses of around 43 billion dollars due to the recent floods that have displaced over 17 million people and killed more than 1,600. The unprecedented floods have affected 30 percent of agricultural land and more than 10 percent of the population, destroying crops and livestock, and damaging homes,
Meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that if wheat seeds, fertilisers and farming tools are not provided rapidly, many farmers will miss this year's wheat planting season, beginning in September/October and may not be able to harvest wheat again until spring 2012. Agriculture experts said that tractors and farm machinery are much needed in the floods hit areas for levelling and preparing the fields for sowing of winter crops.