The report says that farm credit disbursement saw a growth of 46.1 percent on year on year during FY05, but its share in total agri-credit nonetheless fell slightly to 85.3 percent in FY05 from 86.6 percent in FY04, because the disbursement of non-farm credits grew even faster.
The farm sector credit disbursement includes both production and development loans while loans for the non-farm sector include disbursement for livestock, dairy farming, etc. The non-farm agri-credit recorded an increase of 57.2 percent on year on year during FY05, compared to a growth over 33.9 percent during FY04.
The credit disbursement to livestock increased by 385.5 percent to Rs 3.7 billion while the number of borrowers doubled compared to the preceding year, due mainly to new credit schemes introduced for livestock. The number of borrowers and amounts disbursed for fisheries, poultry, and dairy farming also showed an upward movement.
The SBP report says that a matter of serious concern this year was that the number of beneficiaries of agri-credit has remained stagnant. The overall number of borrowers recorded only a marginal increase of 0.6 percent to 1142.8 thousand during FY05.
The desegregated data suggests there is a decline of 0.8 percent in number of borrowers in the farm sector, which was offset by 27.8 percent rise in non-farm borrowers. In fact, the banks have only increased the relative size of the loans disbursed and have not been able to increase their customer base.