Punjab announces interest-free loans of up to Rs30 million for small farmers

LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz has announced interest-free loans of up to Rs30 million for small farmers to strengthen the province’s agriculture sector. She was addressing a delegation of farmers.

According to her, borrowers will pay 2 per cent interest on loans above Rs30 million and 5 per cent on loans of up to Rs50 million.

Maryam Nawaz said more than one million people were benefiting from the Kissan Card programme. Each farmer is being given Rs150,000 in financial assistance before sowing. She said the steps taken for farmers’ welfare in the past two years had no precedent.

The Chief Minister said 1,000 agriculture interns would be recruited this year to improve agricultural services. She said the provincial government had ended black marketing of fertiliser and agricultural produce.

She directed that the support price of Rs4,500 per maund be ensured for wheat procurement. Maryam Nawaz said Punjab was the country’s food basket and met 70 per cent of its food needs. She said modern processing parks were being built for the grading and storage of mangoes, kinnow, potatoes and other crops.

On water distribution, she said a strict crackdown on water theft was continuing so that every farmer received his share and water reached the tail end of canals.

According to the Chief Minister, work on setting up the Punjab Kissan Bank has been completed and it will be made operational soon. Its aim is to give farmers easy access to banking facilities.