Pages: 1-22

Abstract

Capacity building through training is now considered a vital component in maintaining competitiveness in the agricultural sector of less developed country like Pakistan. The study is conducted on beneficiary farmers at grass root level interested in getting loans from banks for crop production techniques and financial management inter alia. This was aimed at improving the loan repayment performance of the project beneficiary farmers. The sub-urban area of district Lahore and Kasur has been used as a pilot study to mainly assess the effects of training on loan repayment among the beneficiary small scale farmers regarding Agricultural and Micro Financing facilities from Banks & Specialized Financial Institutions. Questionnaires were administered to collect data from 150 respondents, sampled using the Judgmental or Purposive Sampling Technique. The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS-20 software and the descriptive statistical tools of frequency, regression and correlation for relationships of variables have been applied. The results showed that farmers obtained higher crop yields resulting from the application of the crop production methods trained in the SBP also needs to improve upon its frequency and timing of monitoring and recovery of the funds disbursed under the project. The SBP should also consider including in its training regime effective marketing strategies to enable the farmers sell their produce and pay off the loan in time to minimize Non-Performing Loans.