Interest-free loans for farmers

The Punjab government has decided to provide interest-free loans of Rs80 billion to small farmers from October 2016 through its mobile-assisted farming initiative. Around 4.5 lakh small farmers, having less than 12.5 acres of land, will be given interest-free loans in the province.

The programme, titled ‘Interest Free Credit & Smartphones to Farmers’, has initially allocated Rs20.13 billion loan disbursement to at least 4.5 lakh small farmers. Input finance of Rs25,000/acre for Rabi season and Rs40,000/acre for Kharif season will be given to farmers through mobile phone-based transactions. These loans will be utilized for buying farm inputs including seed, pesticides and fertilizer and will benefit farmers owning 1.8 million acres of land. Farmers are expected to save 20-40 percent in inputs costs. In view of the above, the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is requested to come up with a similar scheme for the small farmers of the province.

Khan Faraz

Hayatabad

Peshawar