ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and Khushhali Microfinance Bank Limited (KMBL) has signed a memorandum of understanding for promoting sustainable agricultural environment for the farmers in the rural areas of the country.
The alliance aims at facilitating small farmers by providing them expert training session which will benefit them to adapt modern cultivation techniques in their farming under the climate change scenario.
According to the agreement, PARC, through these expert training sessions, will educate the farmers to boost their yield by cultivating high yielding disease resistant varieties, efficient use of fertilizers and pesticides, land preparation and post harvest techniques.
Khushhali bank’s agreement with PARC follows the bank’s earnest efforts of providing a flourishing environment to small farmers through a combination of its financial services and its CSR activities entailing regular training programs for the farmers, who lack adequate knowledge of profitable farm business.
These training programs will be conducted on quarterly basis regularly consistently.
These training program will expose farmers to adapt best practices of farming according to market demand.
Addressing the ceremony, President Khushhali Bank, Ghalib Nishtar, said that the agreement will help in assisting farming community in a better way to promote more sustainability within the agriculture sector of Pakistan, adding that it will be able to bring together agriculture experts and the farming community in close contact.
He further said that the bank is not only supporting small farmers financially but also supporting technically so that the farmers may reap the benefits of bank’s credit.
This will improve the living standard of millions of farmers and ultimately the national economy, adding that this alliance with PARC will take our efforts even further in strengthening this sector which can prove significant in boosting the country’s economy,” he added.
Commenting at the occasion, Chairman, PARC, Dr. Yusuf Zafar assured maximum support from PARC to educate all these farmers on modern agriculture, who are the real custodian of national food security.
He said that PARC has foreign qualified expertise in all aspects of agriculture, livestock and water.
We have a training institute from the very beginning and have trained a lot of farmers, field workers and extensionists with the help of JICA and other agencies.
This programme will provide opportunities to our scientists to reach the farming community and transmit their skills in collaboration with KMBL.
Source Business Recorder