HYDERABAD: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), which met here on Monday to discuss budgetary proposals for the 2023-24 budget, has called for doubling the agriculture credit portfolio in the formal bank credit facility.

The meeting was chaired by Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah.

It said that the cost of production in the agriculture sector has increased by 100pc to 150pc over the last 12-18 months and it continued to rise. Besides, economic condition of growers was aggravated by the 2022 rains and flood. Therefore, it`s important for the federal and provincial governments to devise the budget keeping these factors in mind, the participants said.

SAB proposed that a raise in input cost should be controlled or compensated through a decrease in the prices of commodities.While the government prices fixed for wheat, sugar cane and cotton appreciated, the increasing farm input prices still make it barely viable. It said that the Agriculture Policy Institute should be activated to devise farmers` viability plans byassessing the cost of production of main commodities.

Electricity is available to the extent of 12 hours a day maximum in rural areas; therefore subsidised solar/air turbine solutions should be provided for tube-wells, high efficiency irrigation systems and farming businesses. Oilseed development policy should include farmers` viability, regulatory regime, seed availability and provision of palm plants.

The SAB meeting noted that sunflower and soya bean seeds produced high quality oil and, therefore, controlled import regime with tariffs on these oils be evolved so that local production was encouraged. The import bill of pulses has increased to $820m, therefore, extensive import substitution policy be implemented.

It said that quality seeds as well as diseaseand pest-control items be provided to growers to ensure enhanced production of pulses.

Smalland medium-sized growers` access to credit is limited as only 5.5pc of formal credit portfolio is allocated to agriculture. Credit availability is less than 20pc of agricultural GDP and within that there are distortions like non-crop sector, provincial disparity, etc.

Therefore, SAB said, agriculture credit portfolio needed to be doubled and provinces like Sindh which were getting less formalcredit should be increased.

It said that procedures to provide loans should be shortened so that smalland medium-sized growers could get better access to credit.

Horticultural products provide an opportunity for the national economy to produce value-added products for export. The horticultural processing industry should be encouraged and supported through publicprivate partnerships, interest-free loans, marketing support, incubation programmes etc.

These programmes or financial structures should be provided for investment in rural areas (where raw material is available) and are restricted to smalland medium-sized businesses.

It said that climate change had moved on climate action now, therefore, Sindh should develop a plan to evacuate water and that could be done through restoration of waterways already existing in the province. A `climate change endowment fund` needs to be established to react to disasters quickly and efficiently.

The meeting was attended by Syed Nadeem Shah, Azam Rind, Mohammed Aslam Mari, Imran Bozdar, Mohammed Umer Jamali, Taha Memon, Taha Abbasi, Syed Murad Shah and others.