He said that the pilot project of Warehouse Receipt Based Financing model for agro-based commodities would revamp agriculture financing as being done in the developed world. He said that he objective of holding LDFA at Larkana was to showcase and highlight the agri-economy of the city and its adjoining districts as they had paddy production of approximately 2 million tons out of which 90 per cent was being exported to Africa, Middle East and Far East.
Sajid said that the Sindh government had made various interventions to make the rice cluster competitive which were as follows:
i. Rice is one of the priority clusters of Sindh Agriculture Growth Project which aims to improve farm level practices, introduce machinery for small farmers and enhance crop yields.
ii. SEDF in collaboration with State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is subsidizing interest rates of loans meant for 'Build, Modernize and Replace (BMR) Scheme' for rice mills in Sindh. In addition to that 30 per cent credit guarantee is also provided to financial institutions. This will bring-in operational efficiencies, energy conservation and improved quality of output.
iii. SEDF is also facilitating to improve value addition at farm level which with the farmers. This will create badly needed synergies in the rice sector.
Moreover he said that the sessions of local representatives with international buyers and exporters from Pakistan would also be held with progressive growers and rice millers to enable them to find solutions for the challenges faced by the respective stakeholders. The event will give an update on Entrepreneurship Development Program which has been launched last year at Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tando Jam.