25 Years of ADBP 1961-1986. (1986-2)

The year 1986 marks the twenty five years of continuous endeavour of the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) to the dedicated service of the farming community of Pakistan. Instituted on 18 February through Ordinance No. IV of 1961, the Bank Provides credit facilities to the agriculturists to meet short, medium and long-term loans for crop-raising, mechanizing, modernizing and commercializing farms, for fruits and vegetable afforestation, livestock and dairy development, poultry farming, bee keeping, sericulture, on-farm development, agro-processing and marketing industries etc.
Operational objectives of the Bank include, sound and substantial lending emphasis on small farmers, induction of innovative and adaptive technologies for agriculture in order to achieve a broad technology spread dove-tailed to ADBP’s Mobile Credit Officer (MCO) Supervised Credit Scheme. The thrust has been to increase production and productivity with a view to achieving self-sufficiency in food and increasing exportable surpluses to food-deficit countries. The process aims at equitable distribution of incomes and ameliorating the lot of rural poor.
The authorized capital of the ADBP which stood at Rs. 200 million in 1961 has increased to Rs. 800 million. The ADBP generates its loanable funds through its recoveries, borrowings from State Bank of Pakistan, augmented by suitable lines of credit from IDA, IBRD, IFAD, ADB and through bilateral agreements with donor countries under commodity loans and technical assistance programmes.
The Bank, with its Head Office located in Islamabad, has a four dimensional structure i.e. the Head Office, Regional Offices, Branch Offices and MCOs. The country is divided into 27 Regions each headed by a Regional Manager. The Bank has 205 branches, compared to 7 Regional and 40 Branch Offices at the time of inception. ADBP’s main operations (lending/recovery/technology induction) are carried out by 1200 MCOs, covering 36000 villages.
Bank’s dynamic leadership has been instrumental in increasing its annual lending from Rs. 32 million in 1961 to Rs. 417 million in 1979 to Rs. 4,168 million in 1985. Simultaneous with a quantum jump in its annual lending the Bank could shift from branch-based banking to village-based operations. The security-orienting lending criteria has changed to project based. Under the Supervised Credit Scheme the MCOs are carrying package of technology coupled with credit in order to ensure proper utilization of loans to accelerate the income generation process.
MCOs who are agricultural graduates and hail from the rural areas are instrumental in increasing sound and substantial lending and also in increasing repayments. Cumulative recoveries which stood at 78% in FY-79 has na-eased to highest ever level of 93% in FY.85.
Since late seventies there has been a growing emphasis on small farmers who form the backbone of agriculture sector in majority of the developing countries. ADBP responded to the challenge and in line with the policies of the GOP engineered ways and means to reach out to the small farmers. The small farms constitute 91% of the total farms in the Pakistan. Till FY-79 their share to total lending was 28% which over a period of six years has increased to 70% in FY-85.
Project lending introduced in FV-80 to help establish industries which have ‘pull’ and ‘push’ effect on agricultural sector as a whole has gained momentum. During the last 5 years total amount advanced (both in Foreign Currency and Pak Rupees) stood at Rs. 1 170.140 million for 160 projects with forward and backward linkage with agriculture.
An Agricultural Technology Department (ATDI with over 50 Subject Specialists has been established at the Head Office (Regional Technical Officer at regional level) to create a reservoir of knowledge for induction of new technologies among the farmers through its Supervised Credit Scheme implemented by the MCOs.
A quantum jump in lending operations of the Bank necessitated the establishment of computerization and office automation. The Bank’s computerization strategy is based on the concept of distributed data processing. Introduction of this facility has relieved the branches. of huge routine paper work and at the same time information flow to Head Office for the purpose of control and management has improved tremendously.
As a result of these steps the assets of the Bank have increased from Rs. 124 million in FY.61 to Rs. 12,291 million in FY-85. Simultaneously the Bank’s reserves have risen from Rs. 1.28 million in FY-62 to Rs. 704 million in FY-85. Total income has increased from Rs. 219 million in FY-79 to Rs. 1.061 million in FY-85 and the net profit from Rs.3.50 million to Rs. 362 million during the same period.
To commemorate twenty five years of the ADBP, Pakistan Post Office is bringing out a commemorative postage stamp of 60 P deno-mination on February 18. 1986.