National Bank, USAID join hands to boost agri sector

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) signed a Commitment of Collaboration (CoC) with Pakistan Agricultural Technology Transfer Activity (PATTA) - a USAID funded project being implemented by Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) that aims at private sector solutions to improve agriculture productivity in Pakistan.

USAID-PATTA and NBP recognized that the roles of the two organizations are complementary and an institutional understanding and strategy to combine their potentials to synergize efforts for fast tracked development of private sector particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) engaged in the agriculture and livestock sectors to increase their capacity and competitiveness is required.

Rehmat Ali Hasnie, SEVP / Group Chief, Inclusive Development Group emphasized on the need for modernization of technology and implementation of new solutions in the organization of farms, new production technology to increase production volumes, better quality of products and managing environmental hazards.

Dr. Faheem Abbasi (Chief of Party CNFA-Pakistan) said that this arrangement will aim to provide small farmers with broader access to affordable technologies to increase productivity and build resilience to climate change and reduce post-harvest losses. In so doing, PATTA expects to increase the capacity of agricultural technology related businesses in commercializing technologies and management practices to promote increased adoption of agricultural technologies by small farmers in Pakistan.

The National Bank of Pakistan is the country's largest public sector commercial bank. It has the biggest branch network (over 1500) spread across the country and handles many large loan schemes for the Government of Pakistan to facilitate the people.

The rising prices of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) has added to woes for the people who have urged the authorities concerned to take effective measures for bringing down the commodity at affordable level.

"The prices of edibles are already high and the unbridled rising trend in LPG prices has aggravated the problems further for people especially living in remote areas where inhabitants are compelled to use firewood or LPG for cooking purposes," Nasir Khan said.

He was of the view that currently LPG was used with immense inconvenience for its high prices and the govt should take action against elements that maneuvered the situation to their advantage.

He said that he was living in a rented house and all his savings and monthly salary drained on account of various utility bills and other household expenditures, adding one really went ballistic to see prices of LPG prices going up. Some measures need to be taken in this regard, he added.

Another resident, Israr Khan said that high rates of LPG also led to deforestation especially in hilly areas where people were heavily dependent either on LPG or firewood, adding such moves on the part of LPG sector also provided an opportunity to timber mafia and opportunists to exploit the situation in their favour.

Chairman LPG Industry association Irfan Khokhar says that LPG is the main source of fuel in far-flung areas and such unbridled increase in its prices adds to woes for people. He called for effective measures for increasing its production of LPG to overcome the yawning gap between demand and supply of the commodity in the country.

He says that gone are the days when one kilogram of LPG used to be sold at merely Rs80 but now it has gone up massively and the facility was getting out of bound for the low-income people. He was of the view that the govt should take some programmatic measures for arresting the rising trend in LPG prices as demand of the commodity would grow further when weather turns cool and winter sets in.