KARACHI:
State Financial institution of Pakistan (SBP) governor has urged banks to deal with increasing the agricultural borrower base, strengthening inclusion of small farmers and scaling up digital supply channels to help sustainable development within the farming sector.
Jameel Ahmad famous that agriculture remained vital for enhancing farm productiveness, supporting rural livelihoods and making certain meals safety. He emphasised the necessity for strengthening agricultural monetary intermediation to help worth addition, market linkages and sustainable development within the sector.
He made the remarks at a gathering of the Agricultural Credit score Advisory Committee (ACAC) held in Karachi on Thursday to assessment credit score efficiency and talk about measures to strengthen inclusive and resilient agricultural finance.
Throughout monetary 12 months 2024-25, Ahmad talked about, attributable to collaborative efforts of the SBP and banking sector, a document agricultural credit score disbursement of Rs2,577 billion was achieved, marking a 16% annual improve. Constructing on this momentum, credit score disbursements to farmers through the first half (Jul-Dec) of FY26 reached Rs1,412 billion, whereas the variety of debtors rose modestly to 2.97 million. In his tackle, the central financial institution governor identified that Pakistan’s economic system had regained macroeconomic stability and was shifting in direction of a extra sturdy development path. He shared that actual GDP development reached 3.7% within the first quarter of FY26, whereas full-year development was projected within the vary of three.75% to 4.75%.
He famous that headline inflation moderated to five.8% by January 2026, enabling the financial coverage to help development whereas remaining anchored in value stability. “The exterior account stays broadly contained attributable to prudent insurance policies, resilient remittances and steady commodity costs.
To speed up borrower enlargement notably amongst small farmers within the underserved and unserved areas, Ahmad urged banks to totally leverage initiatives such because the Threat Protection Scheme for Small Farmers and Underserved Areas and Zarkheze – a flagship digital platform for agricultural lending.
The advisory committee reviewed progress underneath Zarkheze, which represents a serious step in direction of digital transformation of agricultural credit score supply in Pakistan. The platform permits digital onboarding of farmers, standardised credit score evaluation, integration with land and crop data and end-to-end traceability of loans, whereas making certain financing is utilised for high quality farm inputs by an built-in vendor community. The governor emphasised that Zarkheze have to be scaled up as a core supply channel for agricultural finance, notably to make small-ticket lending commercially viable and to increase outreach past conventional high-volume areas.
He requested banks to make sure well timed processing of purposes, strengthen inner possession of the scheme and additional develop the seller ecosystem to enhance farmers’ entry to licensed inputs and embedded advisory providers.
He known as on banks to make sure full implementation of their Agricultural Credit score Enlargement Plans for FY26 and emphasised the significance of coordination with provincial governments for digitisation of land information and partnerships with fintechs, agri-tech companies and microfinance establishments to boost outreach. The assembly additionally mentioned the event of an upgraded crop mortgage insurance coverage framework, CLIS+, being formulated underneath the Asian Growth Financial institution (ADB)-funded Pakistan Insurance coverage Transformation Programme to strengthen the agriculture sector’s resilience in opposition to calamities.
The proposed scheme goals to increase crop protection, set up an insurance coverage consortium for improved threat sharing and farmer payouts, and introduce technology-based calamity evaluation together with enhanced safety by loss-of-income help. Going ahead, the ADB’s Solidarity Fund may even help extending protection to non-borrowing farmers and the event of a Nationwide Insurance coverage Coverage for Agriculture.
As well as, the ACAC deliberated on scaling up Digital Warehouse Receipt Financing (EWRF) to enhance post-harvest liquidity, scale back misery gross sales and strengthen agricultural market linkages. The committee famous the necessity to increase accredited warehousing infrastructure and improve financial institution participation in EWR-based financing.
The governor outlined three priorities for the banking sector, highlighting that Zarkheze supplies the infrastructure to attain them: One – supply: increase borrower outreach, particularly by microfinance banks and small-ticket merchandise. Two – inclusion with depth: strengthen financing for subsistence and small farmers by productivity-enhancing credit score. Three – geographical diversification: prolong agricultural finance to underserved areas.
The ACAC assembly continues to function a strategic platform, bringing collectively monetary establishments and key stakeholders to advance agricultural finance as a driver of inclusion, productiveness and long-term financial resilience.
