Golden Jubilee of Zarai Tarqiati Bank Limited.

On The Eve of Golden Jubilee of Zarai Tarqiati Bank Limited Commemorative Postage Stamp August 14, 2011:- The Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) was established through the promulgation of ADB Ordinance, 1961 on February 18, 1961 by merging Agricultural Development Finance Corporation (1952) and Agricultural Bank of Pakistan (1957) to provide better credit facilities to the agriculturists for development and modernization of agriculture and for small cottage industries in rural areas. The motto of the Bank is “Technology for Agriculture”.

Taking full cognizance of the fact that innovational agricultural technology alone can bring about sustained increase in production and productivity, agricultural financing institutions the world over not only provide adequate credit facilities to the farmers but also ensure, either directly or indirectly, the availability of modern inputs to make the credit so advanced equally effective. In 1974 the supervised agriculture program was initiated by the Bank. The crucial elements of credit supplies and know-how were combined under proper supervision to service small farmers.

Agriculture Graduates were recruited as Mobile Credit Officer (MCO), and they have been allotted a circle of about 22-28 villages to visit villages of their circle on Motorcycle and guide the farmers about use of improved seeds, fertilizers, latest technologies, new cropping pattern and other information. They are assigned to assess the credit requirements of the farmers at their door steps by verifying documents required for loan process and sanctioning of seed, sowing of improved varieties of crops, better seed-bed preparation, adoption of proper cultivation methods, application of proper doses and mix of fertilizers and taking adequate plant protection measures.

The Bank is currently passing through the exercise of revamping/restructuring phase so that to serve as a catalyst for the agriculture sector in a more effective and yielding manner aiming at delivering high quality, viable and timely financial and non-financial services to a greater number of clientele so as to increase its outreach on self sustainable basis.

The Bank’s vision is to be the lead bank dedicated to serve the financial and technical needs of the farming community efficiently, competitively and on a sustainable basis to strengthen the agriculture sector leading to success of the Bank and the farming community. ZTBL has now become a vibrant and self-sustainable financial institution, while new agricultural technologies and various innovative packages of customer friendly products and services have also been introduced. This is all due to hard work, dedication and motivation of ZTBL team, which has resulted in taking financial health of the institution to new heights as well as meeting the credit and technological needs of our farmers contributing to the overall development of the agriculture sector.

At present the Bank has a network of 31 Zonal Offices and 357 Branches all over the country engaged in catering to the credit needs and providing technical assistance to farming community and rural poor.

Then in 2002, the Bank was restructured as a public limited company and renamed as Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) through a presidential ordinance. The Bank continued to operate as the prime rural financial institution catering to the credit needs of agriculturists for the production, development and modernization of agriculture as well as promotion of non-financial sector.

ZTBL is the only institution with total focus on agriculture, the back bone of Pakistan’s economy, and a key player for alleviating poverty by ensuring greater outreach for cost effective and timely availability of credit to the farming community. Private sectors initiative is understandably lacking in this important economic sector with inherent risks. Therefore the agricultural loans provided by commercial banks are mostly tied to large agro based industrial projects in sectors like sugar, milk and juice plants etc. The real needs of the small farmers are production loans are agri inputs and development loans for farm machinery and implements, which are almost catered by ZTBL. In addition ZTBL is required to play another important role in uplifting rural areas with special focus on women.

The Bank has been playing an instrumental and proactive role in modernization of agriculture, boosting productivity and enabling growers, particularly the landless poor and small land owners to increase their farm produce and income. ZTBL alone serves about 0.567 million farm families annually and shares around 32% of the toal institutional credit.

The Bank disburse loans for Production and Development purposes. Productions Loans have been advanced for Fertilizers, Seeds, Pesticides, Working Capital etc. Development Loans have been advanced for purchase of Tractors, Installation of Tube wells, Development of Diary Farms, Livestock Farms, Poultry Farms, Land Development, Orchards & Godowns etc.

Since inception, the Bank has disbursed Rs. 715.704 billion up to 31.03.2011 which includes financing of 543,147 tractors and 150,234 tube-wells. While meeting the demand for mechanization, attention was also concentrated towards the provision of agricultural credit to serve its clients with increasing effectiveness and efficiency.

On the eve of Golden Jubilee of Zarai Tarqiati Bank Limited, Pakistan Post is issuing a Commemorative Postage Stamp of Rs. 8/= denomination on August 14, 2011.