Khushhali Microfinance Bank inks MOU with PARC to promote sustainable agriculture through on-farm training of farmers
Islamabad, November 9th, 2017: Khushhali Microfinance Bank has signed an agreement with Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) in its pursuit of achieving the goal of promoting sustainable agricultural environment for the farmers in the rural areas of Pakistan. The alliance aims at facilitating small farmers by providing them expert training session which will benefit them to adapt modern cultivation techniques in their farming under the climate change scenario.
According to the agreement, PARC, through these expert training sessions, will educate the farmers to boost their yield by cultivating high yielding disease resistant varieties, efficient use of fertilizers and pesticides, land preparation and post-harvest techniques.Khushhali bank’s agreement with PARC follows the bank’s earnest efforts of providing a flourishing environment to small farmers through a combination of its financial services and its CSR activities entailing regular training programs for the farmers, who lack adequate knowledge of profitable farm business. These training programs will be conducted regularly on quarterly basis.
At the occasion of the signing ceremony, President Khushhalibank, Ghalib Nishtar, said, “Our alliance with Pakistan Agricultural Research Council is a proud moment and will assist farming community in a better way to promote more sustainability within the agriculture sector of Pakistan. Through this programme we will be able to bring together agriculture experts and the farming community in close contact. These technical trainings will enable the farmers to reap the benefits of bank’s credit, thus improving the living standard of millions of farmers and ultimately the national economy.
“Khushhali Microfinance Bank has played a vital role towards improving the agriculture sector in various ways over the past, and as part of our CSR activities, this alliance with PARC will take our efforts even further in strengthening this sector which can prove significant in boosting the country’s economy,” he concluded.
Commenting at the occasion, Chairman, PARC, Dr. Yusuf Zafar said, “We are extremely delighted to partner with Khushhali Microfinance bank, and assure maximum support from PARC to educate all these farmers on modern agriculture, who are the real custodian of national food security. He further added, “PARC has foreign qualified expertise in all aspects of agriculture, livestock and water. We have a training institute from the very beginning and have trained a lot of farmers, field workers and extensionists with the help of JICA and other agencies. This programme will provide opportunities to our scientists to reach the farming community and transmit their skills in collaboration with KMBL”.
The signed agreement will enable PARC to mentor the farmers with adequate training to craft business development plans and provide low-cost sustainable farming methods, which shall not only help in providing them with the best resources but will also boost their incomes, thus even further improving the working environment.
