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ADBP loan being negotiated for buying rice cultivators: Parc

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Agriculture Research Council is negotiating a scheme with the Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP), which would enable farmers to get loans for buying rice cultivating machines.

Official sources told Business Recorder that for supplying farm machines to rice growers at affordable prices a model has been developed. Its production at industrial scale would start at the Heavy Mechanical Complex once the ADBP agrees to give loans to the intending growers.

Every year the country loses a handsome amount of foreign exchange in exports due to the non-scientific cultivation of crop, as the manual labour employed for chaffing increases the percentage of broken rice, which is sold at cheaper rates in the international markets.

To overcome this problem, the scientists at the Farm Machinery Institute of the National Agriculture Research Centre have developed a combine machine after studying the Japanese and Chinese models. The imported cost of Japanese machine is above Rs 1.2 million and Chinese near Rs 0.4 million, but the cost of locally developed machine comes to Rs 0.1 million.