The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should ask the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL) to revive Awami Zarai Scheme (AZS), reactivate Kissan Support Services Ltd (KSSL) and pursue the commercial banks through penalties to disburse agricultural credit to farmers.

All the banks, particularly the ZTBL, should follow the model of ROBO Bank, a European bank designed exclusively for the welfare of farmers and offers a one-window facility to fulfill all the needs of farmers by linking loans with a period of crops, right from planting to harvesting, to recover loans on the sale of agricultural proceeds.

These views were expressed by former president ZTBL Zaka Ashraf while talking to Business Recorder in the background of Rs100 billion SMEs/agriculture loans of SBP to tackle the impact of Coronavirus besides the recent Rs50 billion agriculture package approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

He said the banks should ensure timely provision of inputs to farmers and schemes like Sada Bahar of ZTBL should be suspended forthwith for their negative impact on the rural economy.

Zaka said he had reactivated Kissan Support Services Ltd (KSSL), a subsidiary of ZTBL, and engaged it in managing the agricultural inputs and supply it to farmers on the price announced by the government. "We took the initiative of booking stocks of inputs with manufacturers and supplied to farmers on the official rate. This exercise was highly beneficial to farmers," he said, adding that the bank had offered the best manufacturers of pesticides, tractors and other implements to register with it and offers products against loans. This single step had boosted up agricultural productivity because of the timely supply of inputs.

Under the Awami Zarai Scheme, he said, the ZTBL had engaged middlemen from all across the country and provided loans to farmers at 8 percent mark-up in line with the duration of a crop from planting to harvesting besides supplying all the inputs on controlled rate. The bank was recovering loans on the maturity of crops.

He has also apprehended that the urban population would travel to rural areas after easing down the lockdown that may put the villagers at high risk so far as the Coronavirus is concerned. Already, he said, the farmers were facing hardships, as police force had locked down the agriculture-relating engineering workshops and no mechanic of implements was available at the time of harvesting of wheat crop. He said the banks should encourage the drip and sprinkle irrigation system by offering equity at the ratio of 80:20 instead of the prevailing 60:40 to farmers in order to save water.