ISLAMABAD, Jun 8 (APP): In order to promote the agriculture sector in the country local lending financial institutions have disbursed an amount of Rs1,222 billion to the farming community during the period from July-March, 2023.
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2022-23 launched here Thursday, the disbursement was comprised of 67.2 per cent of the overall annual target and 27.5 per cent higher than the Rs958.3 billion disbursed during the same period last year.
Further, the outstanding portfolio of agricultural loans has increased by Rs 80.2 billion and reached Rs 712.9 billion at the end of March 2023 compared to Rs 632.7 billion at the end of March 2022, witnessing 12.7 per cent growth. In terms of outreach, the number of outstanding borrowers reached 3.04 million in March 2023.
Analysis of the sector-wise disbursement reveals that out of the total disbursement of Rs 1,221.9 billion, the farm sector has received Rs 625.1 billion, which was 51.2% and Rs 596.8 billion 48.8% has been disbursed to the non-farm sector during July-March 2023.
However, the data on farm credit by land holdings reveals that Rs 234.4 billion has been disbursed to the subsistence farm size which witnessed 37.5 per cent growth during the period. Moreover, Rs 83.1 billion has been disbursed to economic farm size and Rs 307.7 billion to above economic farm size witnessing a growth of 29.7 per cent.
Under the non-farm sector, agriculture lending institutions disbursed Rs 170.3 billion to small farms with positive growth mainly due to credit off-take in non-farm sector activities, especially in livestock/dairy and meat sectors.
Moreover, Rs 426.6 billion has been disbursed to large farms showing a growth of 19.8 per cent during the July-March fiscal year 2023.
In terms of sectoral and purpose-wise performance of agriculture credit, the production loans of the farm sector increased by 35.3 per cent, whereas development loans declined by 13.8 per cent during July-March 2023.
Further, under the non-farm sector, the livestock, dairy and meat sectors witnessed 20.2 per cent growth and the poultry sector recorded 25.5 per cent growth during the period under review.
